Google’s latest cautious moves on behalf of its computerized eyewear hasn’t matched the spectacle seen at the debut of Glass last year, as skydivers wearing the device descended on the company’s 2012 developer conference.
The company’s slow rollout to a few thousand developers has only just expanded, with early adopters now able to invite their friends to pay $ 1,500 for the opportunity to try a device that, in some form or another, will expand the way people think about mediated interaction and mobile technology.
Confronted by public skepticism about the utility and social acceptability of Glass, Google has pushed back with stories about how Glass can enable the disabled, capture live events and perform generally useful functions without further diminishing our rapidly dwindling privacy.
Although Google, because of its history and nature, has to tread carefully around the privacy implications of Glass, government agencies can be a bit more cavalier. In the public sector, the tendency is to prioritize public safety over privacy.