Sarah Slocum, a social media consultant, was attacked this past weekend at the Haight Street bar Molotov's in San Francisco, CA, having the Google Glass she was wearing ripped off her face.
Slocum reported the incident on her Facebook profile, saying she was "verbally and physically assaulted" by people at the bar who mocked her for using Glass, according to Washington Post. Slocum added that she was robbed of her belongings after she left her purse in the bar when she followed the alleged attackers.
A spokesman for the San Francisco Police Department made a statement of the incident, ABC News reported.
"She had gotten in a verbal altercation with three subjects because they believed she was recording with her Google Glasses," the spokesman said. "That verbal altercation escalated when one grabbed the Google Glass off her face and took out the door running."
Police said the attack appeared to be the first incident of violence in San Francisco over Google Glass, SFGate reported.
Slocum was able to retrieve her Glass after her pursuit of the attackers, according to ABC News. She included a video on YouTube in addition to her post of the incident on Facebook.
The incident has brought up the issue of how some technological innovations might be rejected by people who believe technology such as Google Glass is leading to a loss of privacy, according to SFGate.
Google said in a statement it is using Explorers, or beta testers, as a way to gain the public's trust, Washington Post reported. Google released a list of dos and don'ts last week for Explorers to give guidelines for users of how to safely and respectfully use their Glasses in public.
"New technology raises new concerns which is why educating Explorers and those around them is a top priority for the Glass team," Google said. "The point of the Explorer program is to get Glass in the hands of people from all walks of life to see how they use it out in the world. Our Explorers provide us with continuous feedback and on the whole, they act as positive ambassadors for Glass on a daily basis. While Glass is currently in the hands of this small group, we find that when people try it for themselves they realize Glass connects people more with the world around them than distracts them from it."
