Not creepy at all, right? (Stephen Lam/Getty Images)

If you choose to believe its press office, Google has only the noblest of intentions with its products and applications.

It scans your emails for your own good, don’t you know?

And there’s nothing remotely sinister about creepy Google Glass, the product that enables users to photograph and film others potentially without their knowledge, already banned in several US bars and restaurants in response to customer fears about privacy infringements.

Google staff are lining up to defend their baby, adamant that Glass is actually more sociable than phones, and more private.


Google Glass is hardly the first product with a camera, but it’s certainly one of a kind, and it’s the prospects for future developments that worry many.



Already, an app that turns off the tell-tale recording light has been developed, meaning that anyone who downloads it can film people without their knowledge.

Google has submitted a patent for inserting tiny cameras into contact lenses, making the product all but invisible.

Now, another company has devised a ‘brainwave reading’ headset which allows Glass users to capture images and upload them to the web instantaneously, using just their mind. I never thought the day would come when touch screens became inconvenient.

Will privacy become a thing of the past? (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Surreptitious recording devices like Glass breed mistrust, which accounts for the strongly negative reaction from some residents in San Francisco who have objected to potentially being filmed (some sneaky Glass users did indeed turn out to be filming them – not a great advert for the brand) in bars and restaurants.

It seems that some Google staff are getting so carried away with their new toy that they’re losing respect for others’ privacy, creating a nightmare for Google’s PR team as words like ‘creepy’ and ‘glasshole’ are spat across the web.

So what are the implications of products like this becoming as mainstream as smartphones? In a world where anyone could be recording you using contact lens cameras and instantaneously uploading images to the internet without your permission, will privacy itself become a thing of the past?

Yes, obviously. Sure, the product will remain out of reach for some, until similar new products drive market prices down. But the thought that initially only the rich and powerful will have access to this isn’t much of a comfort.

Are we ready to face the prospect of potential surveillance from strangers, friends, even partners? If revenge porn wasn’t enough of a problem already, imagine the possibilities with ready-to-record technology in a partner’s eyes, nearly invisible and activated by brainwaves.

Soon, the only thing standing between your life and instant, unforgiving publicity will be optimistic trust, and perhaps the law. In the inevitable impending Google Glass dystopia, we’ll all be involuntary celebrities.