Google Glass has had many issues with privacy so far in its short lifetime. So far in the lifetime of Glass, we’ve seen restaurants and stores ban the product citing privacy concerns. In fact, a petition to ban Google Glass has even gone up on the White House website. Google has always said that it will leave it up to the user to decide when using Glass is ok or not. Well, according to a new report, that is not always the case and Google has even had to ban Glass in one instance so far.
According to a new press release from Consumer Watchdog, people attending Google’s shareholders meeting today were met with a surprise when they were told they were not allowed to wear Google Glass inside the room. The company also banned things such as smartphones, laptops, and cameras. This apparently infuriated Consumer Watchdog, and according to them, it is very hypocritical of Google to ban their own product from a meeting. Specifically, Google warned attendees that “cameras, recording devices, and other electronic devices, such as smart phones, will not be permitted at the meeting. Photography is prohibited at the meeting”.
“Google has unleashed one of the most privacy invasive devices ever,” John M. Simpson, Consumer Watchdog’s Privacy Project director said in the press release. “Google Glass aids and abets people who want to invade our privacy by videoing or photographing us surreptitiously, but when it comes to their own privacy Google executives jealously guard it.”
Now, it’s not like Simpson has been a big fan of Google Glass in the past, in fact, he is a pretty strong opponent of it. He has always called for Google to give consumers a way to remove videos or photos of themselves from the Google database. He went on to blast Google for its “long record of making everyone else’s information public, but insisting on secrecy about its operations.
I don’t really get Simpson’s argument here. I think the fact that they banned all electronic products shows that is what only Glass that the company was worried about. If you’re as big of a company as Google, you have to take every precaution possible to make sure no information is leaked.
Do you think what Google did was hypocritical? Let us know down in the comments!
Source: Consumer Watchdog