A pink rectangle above his field of vision, which looks like a
twenty-five-inch television screen floating some eight feet
away from him, is replaced by another message: “. . . flight
150 225pm delayed.” . . . Another flick of the index finger,
and a different screen clicks into place. Now it would
appear that someone named Chris Brown is defending
himself on Twitter and that a water bed for cows has
been developed. . . . The man feels a tingle at the back of
his ear, and a voice tells him his friend Christine Lee is
ready to do a video call, also called a “hangout.” The image
of Christine at her desk beams above the man’s right eye.
He can see her and she, in turn, can see everything he
sees through his glasses, the quiet green streetscape of
East Eighty-eighth Street [in New York] streaming on her
computer screen. He’s going to go to the Guggenheim
[Museum] later and promises her that she will be able
to watch the new James Turrell [art] exhibition through
his eyes.
Google Glass has generated a backlash. Privacy advocates
note that the device can be used to take secret photos and
videos and to record private conversations. Were you to try to
do such things using a cell phone, you’d have to hold the phone
noticeably. But with Google Glass, you can start recording
with just a tap of a finger or a quiet command word, without
anyone knowing or hearing. Many types of businesses prohibit
customers from wearing Google Glasses on their premises.
These businesses include banks, which worry about Google
Glass wearers sneaking up behind other customers and taking
pictures of account numbers; movie theaters, which don’t want
Google Glass wearers to secretly record entire movies, which
76 Information Insecurity
