Google Glass: Where is it at?

Ever wondered what happened to Google Glass?

Well wonder no longer!

According to recode, Google glass has been re-branded as project Aura. As noted in this Fortune article, the company decided to focus on the business potential of the project as the consumer oriented device had lackluster demand. According to Fortune, Google glass is being used by industries such as healthcare, energy and manufacturing.


What does this mean?

It yet again gives credence to the trend that IT is being repatriated to the enterprise, as predicted Deloitte's 2015 TMT predictions. On a previous post, I had noted that the Intel's growth area was in support of data centres instead of consumer products - giving kudos to Duncan Stewart and team. But this serves as another evidence of their prediction being right.

Interestingly, Google has been able to procure the services of employees used to work on Amazon's Kindle tablets. Will this breathe in the consumer savvy that Amazon has been bringing to US customers?

Although the sources cited earlier say that this will be hitting the consumers some time in the near future, I still think that the privacy concerns I raised on a previous post on Glass still exist. Specifically:

"The issue, however, with Google Glass is that it is integrated into one's person's physical body and, unlike a smartphone, video camera or that ancient camera with smoke and all,  it inherently lacks the social mechanism to communicate that the interaction is being recorded. Even with social media, it is well understood that the communication is occurring in a medium that can be easily shared, so those that engage in such a communication understand there is a possibility that their conversation is not private and may not be kept confidential. In other words, precisely because Google Glass is integrated into the moment, it inherently lacks the ability to gather:

• "Notice. The entity provides notice about its privacy policies and procedures and identifies the purposes for which personal information is collected, used, retained, and disclosed."
• "Choice and consent. The entity describes the choices available to the individual and obtains implicit or explicit consent with respect to the collection, use, and disclosure of personal information."

(This was taken from AICPA-CICA Generally Accepted Privacy Principles, see page 7)"

Author: Malik Datardina, CPA, CA, CISA. Malik works at Auvenir as a GRC Strategist that is working to transform the engagement experience for accounting firms and their clients. The opinions expressed here do not necessarily represent UWCISA, UW, Auvenir (or its affiliates), CPA Canada or anyone else.