To add to the constant technological developments of our world, Google has recently unveiled its new Google Glass product: a device that seems to bring us even closer to the Orwellian dystopia we were all warned of in “Nineteen Eighty-Four.”
The company first announced Google Glass in the summer of 2012, but discussion has picked up more recently because of an increase in advertisements for the device. Google Glass is essentially a Smartphone in the shape of a “fashionable” eye piece. Each pair of glasses is fitted with a camera and web browser that displays digital information on a tiny screen. The part of the headset that rests near the temple is used as a touchpad, and is activated by touch, with functions such as scrolling and tapping. Google Glass is also fitted with a tiny speaker, microphone and motion sensors. The device can send text messages, receive emails, show you the latest news and even act as a GPS to identify your location and access Google Maps.
Google Glass seems like a more convenient Smartphone at first glance, but its ability to record is what takes it to extreme levels, similar to what one would see in a “Terminator” movie. There is no way of knowing if someone is simply glancing in your direction or if they are videotaping you.
This video option is a main critique opponents of Google Glass offer. One website called “Stop The Cyborgs” argued against Google Glass, saying that the device will bring us closer to a society in which “privacy is impossible and corporate control total.” They dislike the fact that the device has the ability to record and find it disturbing that a person could be recording you just as easily as they could be looking at you.
But being recorded without your knowledge or permission is not the only problem society faces with the creation of Google Glass. With Google Glass, individuals face the danger of losing their privacy altogether, granting Google will have the ability to know exactly what Google users are seeing at any given moment through the device’s lenses.
Supporters of Google Glass have argued that cameras and other recording devices already exist, making Google Glass’ ability to record irrelevant. But the users of existing camera devices have control over where their captured data goes. Google Glass, on the other hand, automatically sends recordings and images to Google because of the device’s lack of storage space. Google Glass may well be the end to whatever privacy social networking hasn’t already taken from us. The glasses themselves act almost as monitoring devices, and who’s to say Google won’t start listening to our conversations and looking at our pictures and videos?
CNN reporter Andrew Keen brought this concern up in a recent article, writing: Google Glass could, I fear, become the focal point for all our data in a world where privacy no longer exists.”
Once this technology is completed and improved, a quick search on Google’s database might bring forth every word you have ever spoken within earshot of a Google Glass device, and anything you said that might be seen as an affront to Google could be discovered and used against you. Perhaps I am jumping to conclusions, but with technology like Google Glass, a dystopian future, in which Google plays the role of an Orwellian Big Brother, is conceivable.
“Stop the Cyborgs” wrote that, as a result of Google Glass, “Gradually people will stop acting as autonomous individuals, when making decisions and interacting with others, and instead become mere sensor/effector nodes of a global network.” It is frightening to think that we ourselves are turning into these robots; these beings so dependent on and controlled by technology that we are willingly giving up our autonomy. Technology such as Google Glass puts our personal freedoms at risk. Therefore it is important that Google Glass be viewed as a breach of privacy, or else people will be susceptible to an even greater loss in personal liberty and privacy.
Meredith Berger is an Opinion columnist for The Cavalier Daily. Contact her at m.berger@cavalierdaily.com.
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