Agents from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) allegedly questioned a man attending a showing of "Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit" because he was wearing Google Glass.
The Gadgeteer first published the story of an anonymous author who was taken into custody by DHS under suspicion of illegally recording the film on Jan. 18. The author attended the viewing at a local AMC theater in Ohio. The anonymous movie attendee wrote:
I don't want Glass to distract me during the movie, I turn them off (but since my prescription lenses are on the frame, I still wear them). About an hour into the movie (Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit), a guy comes near my seat, shoves a badge that had some sort of a shield on it, yanks the Google Glass off my face and says "follow me outside immediately". It was quite embarrassing and outside of the theater there were about 5-10 cops and mall cops. Since I didn't catch his name in the dark of the theater, I asked to see his badge again and I asked what was the problem and I asked for my Glass back. The response was "you see all these cops you know we are legit, we are with the 'federal service' and you have been caught illegally taping the movie".
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) released the following statement confirming the incident occurred:
"On Jan. 18, special agents with ICE's Homeland Security Investigations and local authorities briefly interviewed a man suspected of using an electronic recording device to record a film at an AMC theater in Columbus. The man, who voluntarily answered questions, confirmed to authorities that the suspected recording device was also a pair of prescription eye glasses in which the recording function had been inactive. No further action was taken."
The anonymous author wrote to The Gadgeteer out of frustration with the way he was treated. In his letter, he claimed he explained to the authorities how he can verify he was not recording the film but no one listened to him.
You can read the man's full story here. Do you think authorites should be concerned about wearable tech? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.
