As an expat living in France I just discovered this thing called "droit d'image." I wonder how Google is going to reconcile their glasses with people's right to privacy (or right to not be recognizably recorded) in public. It's one thing to drive a few hundred Map cars around and scrub the images. It will be something else when thousands of these are deployed and everyone on the other side of the glass will need to have consent.
Creepier By The Minute: Google Glass Will Identify People By Clothing Choices
31–40 of 46 posts
Re: Creepier By The Minute: Google Glass Will Identify People By Clothing Choices
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
What's wrong with facial recognition? It has numerous positive uses. Automatically annotating family photo albums being one, trivial example. Even "lethal" drones--it's not like there's one software developer who makes LethalDrone OS. There are many components to it that have very positive possibilities, for example auto stabilizing flight controls, which can and will end up being used in search and rescue drones.
And you're telling me at no point did any software engineer write the code that allows the pilot to fire a gun, or do calculations to account for the impact of "kickback" from firing a projectile on a drone's flight path, or...
Sure, they probably did and I'm not trying to argue that it's impossible to use technology for evil. In fact, I'm someone who has protested and left a project because of the ethical implications it posed.
My position, and the only point I'm trying to make is that these technologies aren't themselves sinister. It's their uses that we need to cast light on.
Saying that no one really "needs" facial recognition or photo tagging is obvious. For that matter, no one needs an iPhone, or a computer, or the internet, or books. But, it does open up new possibilities to have those technologies to work for us. Before now, there's no practical way you could query your family photo album for all photos of aunt Beulah from 1994-1998. Is it needed? No. But neither is having any recollection of your relatives.
I'd be interested in seeing what kind of criteria you can come up with for dichotomizing good and bad technology purely on technical grounds. That is, without taking into account usage and motivations for usage. I mean that sincerely and not jest.
I do agree with you that there should be some sort of "guild ethics" we adhere to, but not that we should ostracize certain technologies. We should refuse to work on certain projects or for certain organizations when we know they will be used for wrong. Firewall technology? Good. Great Firewall of China? Bad.
Re: Creepier By The Minute: Google Glass Will Identify People By Clothing Choices
#33Who's working on technology like this, and why? And why isn't it self-evidently bad to the people working on it? I think a code of professional ethics around software engineering is long past due. Journalists started doing this in the 20s[1] after a series of events, including the Spanish-American war, made the awful potential of ethical lapses in journalism obvious to everyone.[2] We can't continue to maintain the r…
What's wrong with facial recognition? It has numerous positive uses. Automatically annotating family photo albums being one, trivial example. Even "lethal" drones--it's not like there's one software developer who makes LethalDrone OS. There are many components to it that have very positive possibilities, for example auto stabilizing flight controls, which can and will end up being used in search and rescue drones.
For something less trivial, one of my thoughts for Google Glass was that it could help people who can't recognize faces themselves.
Re: Creepier By The Minute: Google Glass Will Identify People By Clothing Choices
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
What's wrong with facial recognition? It has numerous positive uses. Automatically annotating family photo albums being one, trivial example. Even "lethal" drones--it's not like there's one software developer who makes LethalDrone OS. There are many components to it that have very positive possibilities, for example auto stabilizing flight controls, which can and will end up being used in search and rescue drones.
For something less trivial, one of my thoughts for Google Glass was that it could help people who can't recognize faces themselves.
That's a really good example. A neuro-prosthetic to treat prosopagnosia.
A friend of mine who is colorblind wants to see Google Glass help distinguish colors, which is more trivial, but similar.
Re: Creepier By The Minute: Google Glass Will Identify People By Clothing Choices
#35I don't think this is creepy at all - in fact, this is how human vision works. Besides, the fact that the article's on a website called "Macgasm" doesn't lend much credence to the opinions expressed in it.
When I notice a stranger wearing a certain brand of shirt I don't walk up to them and start asking them if they want to buy an array of similar shirts from me and whip out a credit card reader. In what way is this "how human vision works"?
Google has explicitly stated that they do not intend to, and will not use Glass for advertising. This feature is similar to "Find My Friends" and is clearly opt-in (as it requires prior training) -- have you even read the article?
Re: Creepier By The Minute: Google Glass Will Identify People By Clothing Choices
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
The big thing will be because CCTV is used (generally) to record video and store it for X months until it's taped over by the store, Google on the other hand is a datavore and will quite happily use the information in a completely different way to CCTV.
CCTV is (and has been!) subject to virtually every abuse I can imagine Google Glass being used for. Glass will "generally" not be used for privacy invasion either, so I don't see how this logic works. (And the "won't be stored" point seems silly given that you can trivially store a surveillance camera record...). Obviously both can be abused. So why the one-sided outrage?
I'm on CCTV all day, but my insurance company and employer don't use a mosaic from that data in quoting rates or doing background checks. Glass or anything similar, can change all of that.
The point is that valuable privacy silos are lost due to centralization by a sophisticated party, that makes money by selling that privacy.
Re: Creepier By The Minute: Google Glass Will Identify People By Clothing Choices
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
Google Glass has the advantage that you can't tell if it's recording. "Don't worry, I'm not recording a video," they'll say. You can't accuse people of wearing glasses that may or may not record. Similarly, when people use smartphones, they could be recording with the back camera, but people are okay with that. They assume no recording takes place simply because it's the more likely situation.
You can't tell if it is recording, except for the red LED on the outside of glass that lights up to tell you when it is recording.
Even with a red LED, many people will not recognize Google Glass as a video capturing device. And if this product takes off, what's a person to do if he doesn't want to be recorded and tracked? Imagine sitting in the subway or at Starbucks around 10 Glass users.
Re: Creepier By The Minute: Google Glass Will Identify People By Clothing Choices
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
When I notice a stranger wearing a certain brand of shirt I don't walk up to them and start asking them if they want to buy an array of similar shirts from me and whip out a credit card reader. In what way is this "how human vision works"?
Google has explicitly stated that they do not intend to, and will not use Glass for advertising. This feature is similar to "Find My Friends" and is clearly opt-in (as it requires prior training) -- have you even read the article?
"Google has explicitly stated that they do not intend to, and will not use Glass for advertising."
If you believe that, I've got a bridge to sell you. Google makes its money with advertising. Its products exist in order to gather information about you and your environment, so that it can more effectively manipulate you to buy its clients' products, services or ideas.
Glass is linked to your Google account. The device has GPS, a camera and a microphone. Everything you capture, send and share goes through Google and will be of great interest to them.
EDIT: I searched for a Google statement, the only one I could find is from last year, when the Google Glass lead said "there are no plans to display advertisements through Glass “at the moment."
Re: Creepier By The Minute: Google Glass Will Identify People By Clothing Choices
#39As an expat living in France I just discovered this thing called "droit d'image." I wonder how Google is going to reconcile their glasses with people's right to privacy (or right to not be recognizably recorded) in public. It's one thing to drive a few hundred Map cars around and scrub the images. It will be something else when thousands of these are deployed and everyone on the other side of the glass will need to h…
Question is how is France going to reconcile being stuck in the 20th century?
Re: Creepier By The Minute: Google Glass Will Identify People By Clothing Choices
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can't tell if it is recording, except for the red LED on the outside of glass that lights up to tell you when it is recording.
Even with a red LED, many people will not recognize Google Glass as a video capturing device. And if this product takes off, what's a person to do if he doesn't want to be recorded and tracked? Imagine sitting in the subway or at Starbucks around 10 Glass users.
Just for argument sake, what's the difference between being recorded on video or being watched by someone's eyes?
If you don't do anything noteworthy, no one is gonna care to re-watch that video.
How many hours of youtube videos already go unwatched today?