It seems like an odd, almost creepy, selling approach for a device designed to enhance human interaction, but apparently knowing the criminal records of all your BFFs is becoming quite the thing.
The new service, sporting a catchy handle - NameTag - does, indeed, tag whoever wanders into your view. And it may well provide Too Much Information, or at least more than you bargained for. You may not want to see someone's bio - or rap sheet - when bumping into them on the street, but that is no longer your choice - or theirs. This may well deepen the quality of your social engagement - and it certainly makes it easier to determine how to pitch whatever message you are on that day, but it does raise questions about how we see other human beings and whether that is really how we want to live.
The question is whether potential users will find this intrusive, beside the point, distracting or useful. As in so much of our daily struggles, it probably depends on who, where and why. But if we are concerned about technology creating more alienation than togetherness, this would appear to be a helpful point of inquiry. JL
John Koetsier reports in VentureBeat:
Sex offender? Gotcha. Ego-driven international music superstar? Got you too. Nameless nobody? This new technology on Google Glass might just have you too.
Especially if you have a criminal record.
The new technology isn’t coming from Google, or from Facebook — although it is powered by their technologies, in a sense. Instead, it’s coming from a tiny startup in Las Vegas, Nevada that is connection to a database of faces on FacialNetwork.com.
In a video released today, NameTag announced that it is releasing the first facial recognition app for Google Glass in beta:
“I believe that this will make online dating and offline social interactions much safer and give us a far better understanding of the people around us,” NameTag’s creator Kevin Tussy said in a statement. “It’s much easier to meet interesting new people when we can simply look at someone, see their Facebook, review their LinkedIn page or maybe even see their dating site profile.”
The appeal of knowing whether or not the person chatting you up in the singles’ bar is a known sex offender or not is pretty clear. The social impact of ubiquitous face recognition technology that destroys privacy and anonymity? Not so much.
Google has already banned facial recognition apps for Glass due to that privacy and security nightmare. However, technically savvy Glass owners can easily jailbreak their smart glasses and install any apps they want … Google itself has released instructions on exactly how to accomplish that.
Tussy says there will be safeguards, however.
“People will soon be able to login to http://www.NameTag.ws and choose whether or not they want their name and information displayed to others. It’s not about invading anyone’s privacy; it’s about connecting people that want to be connected. We will even allow users to have one profile that is seen during business hours and another that is only seen in social situations. NameTag can make the big, anonymous world we live in as friendly as a small town.”
Whether that be available for the known sex offenders in the National Sex Offender Registry, however, is unclear. NameTag is using 450,000 photos there to provide security for Glass owners who want to stay safe. The company is also planning to implement similar technology for profile photos on PlentyOfFish, OkCupid, and Match.com.
The company’s tagline is “your photo shares you.” Brave new world.
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