Google Glass Wearers Attacked In Public

Google Glass was made available to anyone with a spare $1,500 this week in a special one-off 24 hour sale, but people sporting the wearable tech appeared to generate a lot of hostility, and in some cases, even violence from the general public.

Make no bones about it, Google Glass is a visionary product. What was once a sci-fi dream is now a brave new reality. Yet is the world ready for Google Glass and the potential threat to personal privacy that Google Glass entails?

Judging by the mixed reaction on the streets to Google Glass wearers earlier this week, the answer would be a resounding no. While it’s easy to object to uber geeks strutting around in a pair of high-tech Google Glass frames like they’d just walked of a sci-fi film set, you’d think Google Glass wearers on the whole would be perceived as a relatively harmless if unsightly bunch. Well think again.

Sky News reports that technology journalist Kyle Russell was attacked in San Francisco just because he happened to be sporting some brand new, and aesthetically unpleasant Google Glass.

Kyle explained: “A person approached me, put their hand on my face, yelled ‘glass’ and then before I realized what was going on, they ran in the opposite direction from where we were walking.”

A shocked Kyle later found his Google Glass device smashed and looking forlorn on the road. Oh the inhumanity!

When once considers that Google Glass was only being sold on a temporary basis to the general public as part of a beta-testing Explorer Program, such immediate and negative reactions to Google Glass would appear at first glance to be pretty damming.

Let’s be honest, Google Glass is a face computer which for some peculiar reason makes its wearer look incredibly smug and annoying, sort of like a self-satisfied guinea pig.

The idea of Google Glass isn’t the problem. There’s many who would be enticed by a hands-free portable device which incorporates a display, touchpad, camera, and microphone enabling you to browse the Web, take pictures, and translate languages on the go. The reality of Google Glass is something altogether different.

Google Glass poises a unprecedented threat to personal privacy. In theory anyone even remotely near a Google Glass device is in danger of their every word and action being recorded via Google Glass to Google Cloud, where it could be stored for an indefinite period without your consent and without your knowledge.

Sound good to you?