A woman's discomfort with a doctor wearing smart glasses during a consultation has sparked debate over privacy and the use of camera-equipped technology in healthcare settings.
I don’t like this “smart glasses are evil” sentiment. They would improve the lives of many people. I’ve seen demonstrations of its use for blind people. Even people simply travelling and having everything translated automatically would be nice.
But, yeah, going into a restroom with them on, or not asking for authorization from the patient to use them, crosses a big red line.
I have a neurological vision disorder which I suspect augmented reality glasses would help a lot, but sod letting Meta see my life from a first-person perspective 24/7, or the lives of anyone around me for that matter. Also I suspect a genuine medical device would have to be made very obvious, you don’t want accessibility tech being mistaken for pervert tech. I wouldn’t take the risk frankly! It’s like if I’m talking to someone and they have a hearing aid in that’s fine, but if they’ve got headphones in I’m going to feel a little cheesed off on the face of it.
Also not American but I work for a trans-Atlantic company, those things sound like a PHI nightmare in a medical setting given Meta’s habit of indiscriminately hoovering up data like as many labradors in a pantry.
The idea of them is incredible. I grew up watching sci fi galore with holographic AI personal assistants, and AR glasses, and 3D printers, etc. The idea of these technologies is amazing.
The reality of them is a little different. It’s hard to get behind certain advancements when they are completely in the control of a handful of people on Earth who have more wealth than everyone else combined. It’s impossible to ethically endorse these projects when the companies responsible have time and again proven themselves to be untrustworthy. And I mean, you shouldn’t trust them with your name and age, let alone videos and pictures of you—and strangers!—naked in a doctor’s office.
The technology and the possibilities are awesome and awe inspiring. The society we live in is not ready for them. Hell, much of the world still hasn’t caught up with how to adequately regulate and legislate for the internet revolution that happened over thirty years ago, nevermind for smart glasses that can always be recording.
Any product created by a company that has demonstrated evil intent should be considered evil, even if there are legitimate valid uses. You have to trust not only the person using it, but also the company that controls what the device can/will do with or without the users constent.
The smart glasses aren’t evil in the same way that AI or social media aren’t evil, they all have huge potential to enrich and enable all of society. The problem is that they are for profit regardless of the consequences so any hope of that enrichment or net positive outcome actually becoming real is delusional and the sad reality is that they will be subverted and weaponised to make money at every opportunity.
I only spend time on Lemmy in bursts, but it has become pretty clear that most people in this “technology” community absolutely hate all forms of technology. It’s pretty weird.
You’ll find that there are tech enthusiasts and tech consumers. Tech enthusiasts are usually fans of FLOSS and want technology accessible for all; basically they want tech to work for them. Tech consumers are usually fans of what’s new on the tech market and become the product.
I’m part of the former. These glasses are awful in every way possible, so much so that the alleged benefits are minuscule in comparison to privacy breaches, misuse of data by a private company, training of AI models on that stolen data, parasitic and enforces a reliance on being online.
I’d much rather trust independent research than a private profit driven tech company to develop anything to assist disabilities. There’s already tech being developed that potentially restores some sight to the blind.
I don’t hate tech. But we are definitely in time of techno robber barons who have long drained any benefit of the doubt. Meta especially deserves no grace.
There’s a clear disctinction these days bewteen “Tech” and “Big Tech™️”. This is firmly in the latter.
I feel like thats because technology is at odds with ethics in the majority of popular fields of tech and corporations care about money, not ethics. I’m definitely not a luddite, but I understand the hate when technology is used to opress instead of bettering human lives
Do people not make a distinction between technology companies and the technology itself? I do. I have a fancy (okay, kind of pointless, but nerdy AF) folding pixel phone but I have GrapheneOS on it, because I don’t like giving Google all my data for free. I can find the technology fascinating while distrusting and calling out the technology company.
But it’s even more than just what you say. I’m heavily downvoted in this comment section because I dared ask a hypothetical philosophical question? I made it pretty clear it was just a philosophical question, so what’s the issue? I get very strong “shut up and hate it with us” vibes. Pretty sad, in my useless opinion.
I think it’s getting close to time for another break from social media.
But hey, I appreciate your thoughtful response, truly.
I’m heavily downvoted in this comment section because I dared ask a hypothetical philosophical question?
If you do it in a way that feels like you’re “just asking questions”, that’s a dishonest gesture often used in alt-right pipelines to astroturf discussions. sealioning is what it’s grown to be called.
If you were being genuine, I’m sorry you weren’t believed. But this is sadly an increasingly common internet tactic out there.
I think many people are able to make a distinction between the technology companies and the technology. However in this particular discussion…how many companies are there actually offering smart glasses as a product to consumers? I’d argue as far as the general public is concerned the answer is only Meta right now. A company with a HORRIBLE reputation in regards to privacy. That makes it more theoretical in separating the idea of what smart glasses could be versus the reality of what they currently are. And right now, to me, smart glasses, particularly Meta’s glasses feels like a product with SO many privacy issues that I would question the judgment of anyone who chooses to use that product. Maybe that won’t be the case in the future, but unless things drastically change in regards to consumer data privacy standards, I’m going to stick to being very suspicious of them.
Also I’ll add— I did not downvote you but to me some of your other replies in this thread come across as almost a little intentionally obtuse.
We’re not anti technology, were vocally anti destructive and anti privacy technology. AI is terrible in almost every facet. It’s a neat technology on paper, but the environmental and societal impact far outweighs any positives from it. Camera glasses that record people that don’t want to be recorded and saved to a cloud where that information is trained on and out of the control of anyone that’s been recorded is a major privacy violation. Again, the technology of having smart glasses is neat on paper, but it reality is awful and prime for abuse.
So we don’t hate all technology, just the shit technologies, like those mentioned plus flock and Microsoft products to add to the pile. Not being critical of these technologies is insane to me, because it lets these companies push the limit of what’s acceptable without reprecussions.
You can’t seperate the technology from the company in this case. The complete violation of privacy is baked into the technology with no way to seperate it. The companies practices are baked into the technology with no way to seperate it. Which also applies to most technologies.
If you think we can/should seperate the technology from the company that makes it, you’re incredibly naive. The privacy violations are an inherent feature of the technology itself.
It’s not a Meta only thing, but they are certainly one of the worst companies to have that data. No company should be able to collect data without express permission from anyone in that data. I don’t want literally any 3rd party storing video of me that I didn’t give them approval. An example would be if there were a medical procedure that were recorded on a private local server for reference or archive purposes, similar to any other medical records. Those records are protected by privacy laws like HIPPA where Meta glasses don’t have that.
The recording technology isn’t the problem, it’s consent and how that data is stored and handled after taken.
So if Sony did have their own glasses like Meta, I would 100% expect the backlash to be almost just as bad as it is for Meta. Again, Meta is worse, but bad and really bad are both degrees of bad that deserve criticism and pushback.
The topic of the community is “technology”. It’s not called “pro-technology”. Negative commentary on technology is included in “technology” as a topic.
old school 80’s/90’s sci-fi humor. They’d often use some superpower or new tech with “x-ray vision” that can conveniently see through clothes but not skin…
I imagine the rest can be left to your imagination on how that humor was utilized.
I don’t like this “smart glasses are evil” sentiment. They would improve the lives of many people. I’ve seen demonstrations of its use for blind people. Even people simply travelling and having everything translated automatically would be nice. But, yeah, going into a restroom with them on, or not asking for authorization from the patient to use them, crosses a big red line.
I have a neurological vision disorder which I suspect augmented reality glasses would help a lot, but sod letting Meta see my life from a first-person perspective 24/7, or the lives of anyone around me for that matter. Also I suspect a genuine medical device would have to be made very obvious, you don’t want accessibility tech being mistaken for pervert tech. I wouldn’t take the risk frankly! It’s like if I’m talking to someone and they have a hearing aid in that’s fine, but if they’ve got headphones in I’m going to feel a little cheesed off on the face of it.
Also not American but I work for a trans-Atlantic company, those things sound like a PHI nightmare in a medical setting given Meta’s habit of indiscriminately hoovering up data like as many labradors in a pantry.
The idea of them is incredible. I grew up watching sci fi galore with holographic AI personal assistants, and AR glasses, and 3D printers, etc. The idea of these technologies is amazing.
The reality of them is a little different. It’s hard to get behind certain advancements when they are completely in the control of a handful of people on Earth who have more wealth than everyone else combined. It’s impossible to ethically endorse these projects when the companies responsible have time and again proven themselves to be untrustworthy. And I mean, you shouldn’t trust them with your name and age, let alone videos and pictures of you—and strangers!—naked in a doctor’s office.
The technology and the possibilities are awesome and awe inspiring. The society we live in is not ready for them. Hell, much of the world still hasn’t caught up with how to adequately regulate and legislate for the internet revolution that happened over thirty years ago, nevermind for smart glasses that can always be recording.
Any product created by a company that has demonstrated evil intent should be considered evil, even if there are legitimate valid uses. You have to trust not only the person using it, but also the company that controls what the device can/will do with or without the users constent.
The smart glasses aren’t evil in the same way that AI or social media aren’t evil, they all have huge potential to enrich and enable all of society. The problem is that they are for profit regardless of the consequences so any hope of that enrichment or net positive outcome actually becoming real is delusional and the sad reality is that they will be subverted and weaponised to make money at every opportunity.
Nope. They are evil
I only spend time on Lemmy in bursts, but it has become pretty clear that most people in this “technology” community absolutely hate all forms of technology. It’s pretty weird.
You’ll find that there are tech enthusiasts and tech consumers. Tech enthusiasts are usually fans of FLOSS and want technology accessible for all; basically they want tech to work for them. Tech consumers are usually fans of what’s new on the tech market and become the product.
I’m part of the former. These glasses are awful in every way possible, so much so that the alleged benefits are minuscule in comparison to privacy breaches, misuse of data by a private company, training of AI models on that stolen data, parasitic and enforces a reliance on being online.
I’d much rather trust independent research than a private profit driven tech company to develop anything to assist disabilities. There’s already tech being developed that potentially restores some sight to the blind.
These glasses have got to go.
There’s hating technology in general and then there’s hating the US West Coast tech scene specifically in my opinion.
I don’t hate tech. But we are definitely in time of techno robber barons who have long drained any benefit of the doubt. Meta especially deserves no grace.
There’s a clear disctinction these days bewteen “Tech” and “Big Tech™️”. This is firmly in the latter.
I feel like thats because technology is at odds with ethics in the majority of popular fields of tech and corporations care about money, not ethics. I’m definitely not a luddite, but I understand the hate when technology is used to opress instead of bettering human lives
Do people not make a distinction between technology companies and the technology itself? I do. I have a fancy (okay, kind of pointless, but nerdy AF) folding pixel phone but I have GrapheneOS on it, because I don’t like giving Google all my data for free. I can find the technology fascinating while distrusting and calling out the technology company.
But it’s even more than just what you say. I’m heavily downvoted in this comment section because I dared ask a hypothetical philosophical question? I made it pretty clear it was just a philosophical question, so what’s the issue? I get very strong “shut up and hate it with us” vibes. Pretty sad, in my useless opinion.
I think it’s getting close to time for another break from social media.
But hey, I appreciate your thoughtful response, truly.
If you do it in a way that feels like you’re “just asking questions”, that’s a dishonest gesture often used in alt-right pipelines to astroturf discussions. sealioning is what it’s grown to be called.
If you were being genuine, I’m sorry you weren’t believed. But this is sadly an increasingly common internet tactic out there.
I think many people are able to make a distinction between the technology companies and the technology. However in this particular discussion…how many companies are there actually offering smart glasses as a product to consumers? I’d argue as far as the general public is concerned the answer is only Meta right now. A company with a HORRIBLE reputation in regards to privacy. That makes it more theoretical in separating the idea of what smart glasses could be versus the reality of what they currently are. And right now, to me, smart glasses, particularly Meta’s glasses feels like a product with SO many privacy issues that I would question the judgment of anyone who chooses to use that product. Maybe that won’t be the case in the future, but unless things drastically change in regards to consumer data privacy standards, I’m going to stick to being very suspicious of them.
Also I’ll add— I did not downvote you but to me some of your other replies in this thread come across as almost a little intentionally obtuse.
We’re not anti technology, were vocally anti destructive and anti privacy technology. AI is terrible in almost every facet. It’s a neat technology on paper, but the environmental and societal impact far outweighs any positives from it. Camera glasses that record people that don’t want to be recorded and saved to a cloud where that information is trained on and out of the control of anyone that’s been recorded is a major privacy violation. Again, the technology of having smart glasses is neat on paper, but it reality is awful and prime for abuse.
So we don’t hate all technology, just the shit technologies, like those mentioned plus flock and Microsoft products to add to the pile. Not being critical of these technologies is insane to me, because it lets these companies push the limit of what’s acceptable without reprecussions.
As I said elsewhere, I can differentiate between technology and technology companies. I didn’t realize that was so odd.
You can’t seperate the technology from the company in this case. The complete violation of privacy is baked into the technology with no way to seperate it. The companies practices are baked into the technology with no way to seperate it. Which also applies to most technologies.
If you think we can/should seperate the technology from the company that makes it, you’re incredibly naive. The privacy violations are an inherent feature of the technology itself.
Is your stance that if the glasses were made by, say, Sony, no one would care?
I find that very difficult to believe, but would gladly read how you arrived at that conclusion.
It’s not a Meta only thing, but they are certainly one of the worst companies to have that data. No company should be able to collect data without express permission from anyone in that data. I don’t want literally any 3rd party storing video of me that I didn’t give them approval. An example would be if there were a medical procedure that were recorded on a private local server for reference or archive purposes, similar to any other medical records. Those records are protected by privacy laws like HIPPA where Meta glasses don’t have that.
The recording technology isn’t the problem, it’s consent and how that data is stored and handled after taken.
So if Sony did have their own glasses like Meta, I would 100% expect the backlash to be almost just as bad as it is for Meta. Again, Meta is worse, but bad and really bad are both degrees of bad that deserve criticism and pushback.
The topic of the community is “technology”. It’s not called “pro-technology”. Negative commentary on technology is included in “technology” as a topic.
Reddit subversives can go back to reddit we don’t care
You misunderstand: Lemmy and Bluesky are my only social networks, I just use them sporatically.
Holy cow, what is wrong with this place?
ok fine. you can stay then. I love you
I don’t understand the “x-ray vision” comments. Am I out of the loop?
old school 80’s/90’s sci-fi humor. They’d often use some superpower or new tech with “x-ray vision” that can conveniently see through clothes but not skin…
I imagine the rest can be left to your imagination on how that humor was utilized.