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comment by WorLord
WorLord  ·  4021 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Mark Hurst: The Google Glass feature no one is talking about

    And that's a good thing?

Not good, not bad. I think it can be either, depending on who we ask and why.

    This is new in the history of mankind

IMO, this is as old as when newspapers started using photographs. If anything has changed, its the degree, and IMO even that hasn't changed overmuch for the last decade or so.

    the fact that it ooks people out is not only to be expected, it's to be supported.

I do not see why, on either front.

I would feel differently if we were talking about the inside of my windowless bathroom, or even inside of my house with the curtains drawn, or even the inside of my house with the curtains UP (though I wouldn't argue that very strongly), or even other such places where I can reasonably expect to do things without being seen... but we aren't talking about that.

No, we're talking about places where you can be seen by strangers, potentially a ton of them. It has long been a simple, axiomatic truth, that if you can be seen, you can be recorded, and if you can be recorded, you can (and probably will, at some point) end up on the internet. That this device -- which only makes all this incrementally easier, and is literally as plain as the nose on my face -- can cause this kind of "OMG Wat??" reaction... well, its just mysterious to me, and somewhat silly.

    Further, you seem to be arguing that the onus is on the individual to keep nefarious forces from destroying their anonymity

This is perhaps too fine a distinction, but: no, I'm not. What I'm arguing is that in public, there really isn't anonymity to destroy, and I've no idea why people think there is. I literally do not understand the mind of someone who is upset that a photo of them riding the bus was posted to a public FB profile, just to pick an example.

The best I can guess is that people just don't like that this is the case, and I really just do not know what to say to that other than "avoid the outside". Or, better yet, what I said before: act accordingly.