Some US lawmakers wary of Google Glass

Eight members of Congress on Thursday formally demanded that Google address a range of privacy concerns about its new wearable technology device, Google Glass.“We are curious whether this new technology could infringe on the privacy of the average American,” http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/17/technology/lawmakers-pose-questions-on-google-glass.html?ref=technology  The glasses, which are not yet for sale to the public, connect to the Internet and allow people to do things like take photographs, record and watch video, send text messages, post to social media sites and read text snippets. They have already raised privacy concerns on issues like unwanted recording.
Lawmakers asked questions including how Google would collect and store data from the devices, how it would ensure that it did not unintentionally collect private data, how Google would protect the privacy of people not using Glass when they are with people using it and whether the device would have facial recognition technology.

“We’ve consistently said that we won’t add new face recognition features to our services unless we have strong privacy protections in place,”
Google has faced punishments over privacy violations with past products, including a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission over a social networking tool and another one with 38 states over data collection during its Street View mapping project.

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