Editor’s note: This article was first published in April 2014, during the Google Glass Explorer Edition period. Google stopped selling that version in January 2015 and discontinued the later Enterprise Edition in 2023, so the bans described belong to that time.
Google Glass, one of Google’s most promising products, may not be getting the reception the company expected when it comes to wearing it in public. San Francisco has become one of the first cities where the number of venues banning Google Glass is growing by leaps and bounds.
Several people have already been attacked for walking into bars wearing Google Glass. In fact, some venues have put up signs that expressly prohibit wearing the device.
If you live in San Francisco and want to go to places where Google Glass is not allowed, someone has already drawn up a list of the places that ban it. A list that, by the way, keeps growing. Venues in Seattle, Oakland and elsewhere in California are now joining the ban, according to Business Insider.
Why ban Google Glass?
According to Daen de Leon, a software engineer who lives in San Francisco, the ban comes down to people wanting a minimum of privacy and the reassurance that they can have fun in a bar, act the fool and get drunk without worrying that someone will put it on YouTube on Monday.
The Stop the Cyborgs website offers free downloadable signs with a Google Glass ban message. It also sells T-shirts with the same message.
Many San Francisco venue owners say that when they have seen someone come in wearing Google Glass, they have asked them to take it off, and if they refused, they have thrown them out to stop other customers from taking matters into their own hands.
Of course, not every venue is against Google Glass. Some will buy you your first drink if you are wearing Google Glass.
See also: Google Glass: 7 industries it could revolutionise
Featured image: Raysonho @ Open Grid Scheduler / Grid Engine, CC0 1.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
