Google Glass Won’t Get Facial Recognition Apps, For Now

Google Glass wearers will not be able to download and utilize facial tracking apps in the near future. The Project Glass team on Friday announced that Google Glassware, the new name for Google Glass apps, will not feature the ability to easily track the faces of people Google Glass wearers stare at on the streets.

Announced on the official Google Glass page on Google+, the developers promise that feedback already submitted will keep them from impacting privacy with facial recognition.

Here’s what the Google Glass develop team has to say about facial recognition apps:

“When we started the Explorer Program nearly a year ago our goal was simple: we wanted to make people active participants in shaping the future of this technology ahead of a broader consumer launch. We’ve been listening closely to you, and many have expressed both interest and concern around the possibilities of facial recognition in Glass. As Google has said for several years, we won’t add facial recognition features to our products without having strong privacy protections in place. With that in mind, we won’t be approving any facial recognition Glassware at this time.

We’ve learned a lot from you in just a few weeks and we’ll continue to learn more as we update the software and evolve our policies in the weeks and months ahead.”

This isn’t the first time project managers for Google Glass have spoken out against facial recognition. Two weeks ago, they wrote that face recognition will not arrive “unless we have strong privacy protections in place.”

Google Glass, in the meantime, has already been hacked for side-loading apps, which means Google could be powerless in stopping the use of third-party facial recognition software.

Google Glass has been questioned because of privacy protection issues. The question now will be whether or not those issues can be resolved or if Google Glass etiquette will ultimately fall in the hands of Google customers.