Transparency goes both ways

I think about possible futures, one in which we can walk down the
street with augmented reality glasses that can find anything about
anyone you pass. Think about what this needs for infrastructure and
integration before it happens. Ambient connectivity to the Internet, at
some decent bandwidth and uncensored. The ability to query multiple
sites to pull in various social networking, video, picture, and public
information. The computing power to do all of this in real time, on a
battery, all within a set of glasses that should look no different than
glasses do now.

Of course, this should go both ways. It's assumed the police and
government will have this sort of technology to be used on citizens. In
many ways, they already do. The citizens should have the same
capabilities. I should be able to look at policeman, see his service
record, see his precinct, see how long he's been on duty today, and if
he's heading towards a call or break. The same goes for any public
official.

I also think about how one can control what information is found about
them in this virtual/reality mash-up environment. How do you hide
details in this environment? I don't have any good answers, other than
to never give out the information in the first place. There has to be a
better solution than abstinence.

originally published at wiki.lewman.is