Feds Yank Google Glass User From Theater

He was brought in for 'voluntary interview'
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 22, 2014 2:32 AM CST
Updated Jan 22, 2014 5:03 AM CST
Feds Yank Google Glass User From Theater
Longe Optical President Jeff Ostermann explains how Google Glass operates.   (AP Photo/The Journal-Gazette, Cathie Rowand)

Can Google Glass—which includes a camera—be worn in movie theaters? One theater in Columbus, Ohio, decided not and had federal agents pull a a Glass-wearer from his seat. The agent confiscated the Glass, told the unnamed man he had been busted illegally taping the movie, and took him to a room for questioning. "What followed was over an hour of the 'feds' telling me I am not under arrest, and that this is a 'voluntary interview,' but if I choose not to cooperate bad things may happen to me," he tells tech blog Gadgeteer.

"I kept telling them that I wasn’t recording anything—my Glass was off," says the man, who wore the Glass in the theater only because it includes his prescription lenses. After extensive questioning, the agents brought in a laptop and an USB cable to check his Glass and phone before finally concluding he had done nothing wrong, he says. An Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman confirmed that the agency had questioned a man suspected of using an electronic device, but said he had been free to leave the "voluntary interview" at any time, NBC reports. (Meanwhile, another Glass user is off-the-hook in another high-profile case.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X