In San Francisco, there is a tech company called Lambada Labs. They’ve just come up with a facial recognition API for Google Glass. Meanwhile, Google is being grilled by U.S. Congress over privacy issues.
This technology will let you remember people’s faces and find friends in a crowd. This API is already used by over 1,000 developers, including major international corporations. One developer tweeted he was going to use the API to see who was in a room with him. Earlier this month, a U.S. Congressional group called Bi-Partisan Privacy Caucus questioned Google CEO Larry Page about this development. Among the caucus’ concerns were data and pictures being collected against the consent of others and privacy approval for third party apps. According to Google Glass director Steve Lee, ?We?ve?consistently said that we won?t add new face recognition features to our services unless we have strong privacy protections in place.?
At least Congress is trying to do something. While facial recognition isn’t approved in Google’s API policies, it’s not prohibited either. Some may think facial recognition is cute and even needed in today’s society. Like I said before, technologies like facial recognition can be used for good. But it will probably be used for evil. How easy would it be to spy on someone you don’t like, get dirt on that person, and ruin their life? What if this technology gets in the hands of?criminals or even terrorists? Ever consider that? I’m not paranoid, just concerned. Do you think Goolge Glass will see the light?