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Comment by fidotron | Hacker News Reader

Aside from the mismanagement of the software/hardware associated directly with Google Glass the true problem it had was the contradiction between the benefits of the user and those around the user. The single greatest thing about Glass, and it really was brilliant, was the ability to take pictures that almost perfectly captured your field of vision. This is, however, the precise feature those around you might take objection to. Take that feature away and Glass really has no use at all.

The irony of this is it's not hard to conceal cameras on people in order to record their surroundings if you're so inclined, and the reception to Glass just demonstrated how opposed people are to this when it's a visible intrusion, regardless of the actual threat presented.

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The irony of this is it's not hard to conceal cameras on people

The idea that something is technically possible but socially unacceptable is not irony. Concealing something socially unacceptable is not ironic. Expressing disapproval of someone openly breaking social norms is not inherently ironic. The idea society runs on trust is not ironic!

The person you're responding was clearly just saying that it's funny how uncomfortable people were about being recorded by Google Glass, while covert methods of recording are not difficult but rarely worried about.

Take it easy - we know what was meant. No need to get pedantic about the definition of "irony."

>while covert methods of recording are not difficult but rarely worried about.

Unless you're a woman who's ever worn a skirt in public, gone to a gym, or used the changing room in a store.

...or a guy who's used the changing room in as store. What's so different about being a woman in that context?

Nothing, in theory. In reality, women are the ones who have to worry about change room cameras. There is definitely a disconnect there.

>while covert methods of recording are not difficult but rarely worried about.

Well, yes. Because they're...covert. People rarely worry about things they don't know exist.

hence the irony. Let's hate this thing we know about and can avoid, while ignoring the real threats to privacy.

But it's not the "thing we know about and can avoid" it's the thing we know about, and wish to push back on so that social norms don't change to find innocuous.

I can't say that Glass photos or videos ever felt like an important part of the experience--other than demoing it--then everyone wanted to take a picture. Given the design constraints of a worn device, it seems a wrong priority. Even simply making the device smaller by not having a camera would have been a better choice.

And obviously the camera led to a ridiculous amount of privacy related angst.

Saying it is ironic is equivalent to saying that it's ironic that people object when you take an item out of the store in full view while saying "I'm stealing this, I'm stealing this!" and yet anyone can just surreptitiously put an item in their pocket and not announce it and just walk out the store. Why make such a big deal of openly stealing something?

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