While working on some other things yesterday, I had the live feed from Google I/O running. I have to say that Google is catching up and possibly surpassing Apple in coolness. They certainly took many presentations tips from Apple! Up to and including the Jobsian “…and that was <feature>”
One of the coolest thing was Google Glass.
This is a set of eyeglasses with a built-in camera and display. It was introduced by Google by skydivers wearing the glasses and parachuting onto the Moscone Center roof!
Even though I’m an IT guy at heart, living here at RSA for the past 7 years has made me somewhat paranoid about data sensitivity. When I saw how Google Glass was capturing EVERYTHING, my first thought (after “WANT!”) was “What if I was streaming my Glass feed via a MiFi?”
That lead to the paranoia kicking in. What if I was doing that in work? And what if my work has me dealing with sensitive information or even just internal use only emails? And I forgot to turn off the live feed to my blog/website/Twitter/Facebook?
As you can now imagine, the security implications start to boggle the mind. I wish I had an answer for this. Will the BYOD Generation listen to the Graybeards when told “You can’t bring them in here? Oh, and no MiFi too!”? Do they now? No.
By the way, I think I’m a BYOD/Graybeard mashup. (as I type this from my personal Mac at work)
So, I think that right now, probably the best thing is to discuss. Consider the implications, don’t over-react and understand the tradeoffs. Just like when cameras first showed up on cell phones and the first corporate systems connected to the ARPANET, interesting and enabling technologies don’t need to be feared, just understood.
mike