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A Surprising Number Of Places Have Banned Google Glass In San Francisco
Glass banned
Glass banned

LoKan Sardari/Flickr

It seems that some people in the huge technology hub that is San Francisco are not embracing the technology you'd think they'd want to embrace. And some people think that Google Glass will never work.

First there was the woman who claimed she was attacked for wearing Google Glass in a bar in the Lower Haight neighborhood in San Francisco. Then came the bar that actively banned Google Glass from the premises.

That bar was soon followed by other bars and even a pet store.

Susie Cagle, a freelance journalist who lives in the Bay Area, wrote and illustrated an article about her experience with Glass. Here's what she thinks is a major problem with the device:

While tools can certainly facilitate bad behavior, technology does not breed human monsters.

This is essentially the defense of the aggressive, entitled Glass-wearer: We’ve already decided against privacy, we’ve given it up, there’s nothing left to preserve, and to wish or work toward any other future is to be an enemy of technology’s promise. ...

... We do not need to redefine etiquette for a new century of innovation — society needs to decide where its values truly lie.

If you happen to be in San Francisco and want to enjoy a frosty beverage or grab a bite in a Glass-free zone, you won't be left out in the cold.

Daen de Leon, a software engineer at a genetic testing company who lives in San Francisco, has compiled a list of places that ban Google Glass. And the list is growing.

Right now there are 13 bars and restaurants in San Francisco that have a "no Glass" policy. There are also a handful in Seattle and Oakland, Calif.

The places range from casual bars, such as Zeitgeist in the Mission (that also has really great burgers), to the more upscale, such as Italian restaurant Acquerello.

Glass ban map
Glass ban map

Screenshot

de Leon tells Business Insider that he started the list after the incident at Molotov's, a bar in the Lower Haight neighborhood in San Francisco, where a woman named Sarah Slocum said she was attacked for wearing Glass in the bar.

He wasn't there when it happened, but he frequents the bar often. And after talking to witnesses, he says, he "found her assumption that, as a complete stranger, she could enter a bar and just start recording regular customers without their permission quite disturbing."

He says he also knows the people who run The Willows and The Sycamore (two San Francisco restaurants that ban Google Glass), and that he decided to put together a site that lists like-minded bars.

"I think people should at least have some reassurance that they can let off a bit of steam and be silly for an evening without it being splashed all over YouTube without their prior knowledge (as the Slocum footage is)," he says.

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