Google gave early adopters of its Internet-connected eyewear a bit of advice: don't be "
Glassholes." It was the final suggestion in a recommended code of conduct posted online for software developers and others taking part in an Explorer program providing early access to Google Glass.
(I will return to the important issue of the cut below.) Similarly, Lee Edelman's essay "Rear Window's
Glasshole," published in 1999, reifies the notion of the indispensability of the anus to gay male sexuality.
When ordinary people voiced concerns about being invisibly recorded, a certain type of Glass user (quickly dubbed a "
Glasshole") couldn't wait to argue that wearing a potentially invisible recording device was the same as using a smartphone - never mind the fact that most people would take exception to being followed by someone holding a smartphone in front of their face and obviously recording with it.
But even if you do see that you're being filmed, the burden's on you to ask the Glass wearer--or what some are calling the "
Glasshole"--to stop.
Early adopters became known as "
Glassholes"; the gizmo was banned in cool US bars, and it was eventually abandoned.
Plus, Spectacles' 10-second video limit, and the light which shows whenever the camera is on, put a limit on the kind of anti-social behaviour that saw Google's early users branded '
Glassholes.'.
As of October 2014, India had the second highest number of
Glassholes, after South Korea, which is not a surprise really given we have no idea what privacy invasion actually means.