And yet most people don't have that reaction to pervasive CCTV. Which, in some places, is virtually omnipresent and constantly recording. "Smile, you're on camera ☺"
And many people have no qualms sharing pretty much everything on Facebook and the like.
I don't know which way it will really go, but it is really not obvious a priori that everyone is that concerned about privacy, or that society will not adapt to make things like constant filming more acceptable.
The difference for me is that we've learned that CCTV basically never has a direct impact on our lives. I'm sure I'm caught on security cameras 20 times a day for the last 10 years, but not one of those 73,000 recordings has ever come to my attention or mattered at all.
The same isn't true of handheld cameras. When people take a picture of me, it could go places, and I know that. If you're snapping pictures of people, you'll get reactions.
Right now, people definitely treat Glass like a handheld camera. And I suspect they will, at least up until the moment they start wearing one themselves.
I thought your comment was going the other way. The same generally is true of handheld cameras. Can you recall a situation where a stranger snapping a photo that had you in it caused a problem for you?
Here's such a case: a website [1] dedicated to taking pictures of girls in public transport without asking for permission before nor after [2].
Quoting from the opinion piece,
> “Well, when I saw that I was in a posted photo, it scared me… and then afterwards, blah! But maybe there isn’t the need to post these photos online… I feel like I’m in a catalog for rapists or other sick people. It was quite shocking…”
I regularly see tagged photos of myself come up on Facebook and think, "Christ, that's annoying." Enough other people do that they have built a lot of special controls around tagging.
I've also occasionally ended up in the newspaper in crowd shots. That can be fun or irritating, but either way it definitely matters to me.
CCTVs are accompanied with the assumption that some authoritarian figure is responsible for the recordings, and will follow reasonable and legal guidelines to distributing the feed. Even IP Cameras with live streams to the internet are subject to township / state / federal laws and cannot record near bathrooms, hotel rooms or anywhere where there is a reasonable expectation of privacy.
A closer analogy to Google Glass might be handycams and smartphones, and these face plenty of pushback even without the always-on criterion.
If you're sitting down to have coffee with a friend, it's the difference between a camera watching over you from afar and having a camera essentially in the middle of the conversation.
It's not the same to be observed by some invisible or unknown entity than to be observed directly by a person. Someone pointing a digital camera at a person is usually more disturbing than a CCTV camera doing the same thing.
Also, Google Glass may be constantly recording in private places usually without CCTV: homes, dinner tables, meetings, etc.
In my opinion, both are equally disturbing. CCTV often though we don't notice, don't have a choice, or can't as easily express, "WTF is your problem" towards the obnoxious person recording us without consent and clearing exactly what they plan to do with these recordings. When buying stuff at the store, the store does not offer my the option of consent regarding their ubiquitous camera systems. However, the hope is that the camera systems in this context will not be used to exploit, ridicule, or manipulate my very thoughts. With a person I am interacting with, the odds are not as good, but consent of interaction is also easier to withdraw without seriously affecting my ability to survive. I can choose to interact with people who aren't constantly recording me, if I prefer.
Myself I like making field recordings of nature sounds. I've noticed though that a lot of people are concerned when I pull out my Zoom field recorder and start recording them during conversations. They generally don't like it. I don't blame them. I don't like it either. So I either record discretely (which is illegal in many states) or not at all. I don't blame them for not wanting me to record their private conversations though, because their concerns and their desires to have a private conversation are completely legitimate.
In addition to what everyone has said, CCTV are also low-resolution most of time, without sound and a such an angle and a distance that most of your actions are "invisible" to the camera (like knowing what kind book you are reading for example, or even you are reading a book at all).
Most people I believe (rightly or wrongly) think that CCTV are a presence that isn't a threat because the footage doesn't usually live forever, and usually is only used for when something negative happens (such as a crime).
And many people have no qualms sharing pretty much everything on Facebook and the like.
I don't know which way it will really go, but it is really not obvious a priori that everyone is that concerned about privacy, or that society will not adapt to make things like constant filming more acceptable.