Big Brother Watch director raises privacy concerns over Google Glass
Big Brother Watch director Nick Pickles has expressed his concerns over Google Glass claiming the implications for privacy are "profoundly worrying" and that the new technology will make us all "agents" for Google.
Writing for the Telegraph, Pickles says Google's close relationship with advertisers raises issues with just what the technology company plans to do with the huge amounts of personal data it will be able to collect from users, describing it as "Orwellian surveillance with fluffier branding".
He writes: "Everything you see, Google sees. You don’t own the data, you don’t control the data and you definitely don’t know what happens to the data. Put another way – what would you say if instead of it being Google Glass, it was Government Glass? A revolutionary way of improving public services, some may say. Call me a cynic, but I don’t think it’d have much success."
Pickles furthers that though users may have given their consent for their personal data to be collected by the device "who gave you permission to collect data on the person sitting opposite you on the Tube?". Commenting that there is "a gaping hole" in Google Glass where privacy is seen as "an annoying restriction on Google's profit".
In the US campaigners have already started petitions to make no-go areas for Google Glass claiming "that this is more than just a question of privacy".
Pickles concludes that the ultimate danger of the device is that "we lose our privacy and Google gains the power".
According to the latest reports a polished version of Google Glass is expected to go on sale later this year and will be priced at less than $1,500.