Monday, August 4, 2014

Google Bans Google Glass at Googleplex

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.—(TYDN) Online search giant Google is barring its 45,000 employees from wearing Google Glass at its corporate headquarters here, TheYellowDailyNews has learned.

Monday's move, sparked by restroom privacy concerns, follows other venues, like cinemas, strip clubs, casinos, hospitals, restaurants and stadiums to banish the $1,500 wearable eyeglass computers that can secretly record video and audio.

Google Glass not welcome at the Googleplex. Photo: Trey Ratcliff
Analysts said it was the second Google product barred at the Googleplex this year, following the 45-vehicle April parking lot pileup involving runaway Google Driverless Cars.

Eric Schmidt, Google's executive chairman, issued the Google Glass ban to employees early Monday in an e-mail obtained by TheYellowDailyNews.

Schmidt, in an exclusive interview with TheYellowDailyNews, said life at work with Google Glass had become virtually "unbearable."

"You ever watch a dog defecate, on how it's always looking around nervously to see who's looking?" Schmidt asked. "Going to the bathroom at the Googleplex turned into that. It became unbearable. Our most private moments weren't so private anymore."

Schmidt also ordered the removal of the popular YouTube channel, "Googleplex Workers on the Thrown."

Shares of Google on the NASDAQ Stock Market were trading lower.

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