Google Glass : A Privacy Invasion Or A Massive Aid ?

Google Glass is a wearable computer that can be worn similarly to eyeglasses. Google Glasses have a transparent heads-up or head-mounted display that allows users to see a computer screen while still seeing the world through the screen. Though it has not yet been put on public sale, nearly 10,000 people are trying it out, as victors of a Google contest. Among the people testing thiss wearable computer are teachers, dentists, doctors, radio disc jockeys, hair stylists, architects, athletes and even a zookeeper in America.
Google Glass is designed to work like a smartphone that's worn like a pair of glasses. Although it looks like a prop from a science fiction movie, the device is capturing imaginations beyond the realm of nerds. It features a hands-free camera that captures the view in front of you using voice commands. It uses a LCos, LED illuminated display that helps user view the required data with aplomb clarity.

Google Glass applications are free applications built by third-party developers. Glass also uses many existing Google applications, such as Google Now, Google Maps, Google+, and Gmail. Many developers and companies have built applications for Glass, including news apps, facial recognition, exercise, photo manipulation, translation, and sharing to social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter.

Glass is being developed by Google X, which has worked on other futuristic technologies such as driverless cars. The project was announced on Google+ by Project Glass lead Babak Parviz, an electrical engineer who has also worked on putting displays into contact lenses. The specifications of the Explorer Edition of Glass are as follows :

Technical specifications :

For the developer Explorer units:

• Android 4.0.4 and higher
• 640×360 Himax helloHX7309 LCoS display
• 5-megapixel camera, capable of 720p video recording
• Wi-Fi 802.11b/g
• Bluetooth
• 16GB storage (12 GB available)
• Texas Instruments OMAP 4430 SoC 1.2Ghz Dual(ARMv7)
• 682MB RAM
• 3 axis gyroscope 
• 3 axis accelerometer
• 3 axis magnetometer (compass)
• Ambient light sensing and proximity sensor 
• Bone conduction audio transducer

Despite being one of Time magazine's "Best Inventions Of The Year 2012", Glass remains a glass-house for Google. In it's short time in the limelight, it has raised a plethora of privacy concerns. It is also labelled by several as unethical as it can record people without their knowledge.

Glass is constantly tracking the wearer's eye movements and makes data requests to the server based on where the eye-ball is faced, meaning information is collected without permissions. As eye movements are largely subconscious and have significant psychological meanings, they reveal a lot about the person using the Glasses. In other words, Glass will quickly learn a significant amount of information that you yourself don't know and it sends all that data to the server without permissions.

Seeing that Google is one of NSA's prime compliant organisations, it wouldn't be surprising if the information gathered would be under constant scrutiny, meaning that Glass could open the doors to a whole new level of wiretapping. Also, when you're typing in your PINs or passwords,  you're being watched.

The influx of Google Glasses would provide the wearer an amazing experience, but at a cost. Glasses could also potentially be the most massive intrusion to one's privacy, putting you under constant surveillance.