14 DAY TRIAL // A woman wearing Google Glass was attacked and robbed this past weekend in San Francisco.
Sarah Slocum is a tech writer and business consultant who was in a bar on Friday night, the SFGate reports. At the time of the incident, she was demonstrating to some friends how Google Glass worked.
Suddenly, someone tore the device off her face and ran off with it. Another person that was accompanying the assailant told Slocum that her and her friends who enjoyed tech were destroying the city.
This is a reminder of all the incidents from the past few months when individuals from San Francisco attacked shuttles taking tech employees to work in sign of protest for the rising rent prices due to the closeness of the headquarters of countless tech firms.
Many Google buses were stopped in traffic and even damaged, which eventually pushed the city hall to implement a new system where tech firms paid for their shuttles to use bus stops. Google and Facebook have also been testing out alternative ways to get their workers to the office, including by boat.
Slocum eventually pursued the attacker and convinced him to hand back the Google Glass, a device that members of the Explorer program pay $1,500 for (€1,090), but her purse, cell phone and wallet were stolen from her instead, by another person that was accompanying the assailant.
A report was filed with the police.
Ironically, Google issued a set of etiquette rules for Glass wearers, anticipating that the device wouldn’t get a warm welcome from people. One of the things on the list was to show other people what Glass could do, exactly what Slocum was doing when she was attacked.
Of course, it is expected that by the time Google Glass is released to the world, the company will have done more to make it easy to understand by everyone, including through a marketing campaign that explains in more detail what can and what cannot be done with Glass.
In this manner, it’s possible for people who aren’t tech enthusiasts to understand that the device doesn’t really have more impact on one’s privacy than a smartphone.
Although Google has kept mum on the topic in recent months, previous statements indicate that Google Glass will be available to purchase starting this year. More details regarding this could be unveiled at its annual developer’s conference, which is scheduled for June this year.