Exactly. I'd like "smart" glasses to just be an external display for my phone, don't care about a camera. If I want to take a photo I can use my phone.

Give me the Apple CarPlay equivalent for the human face, and I’d be happy.

Something like the original Google glasses…

…but like, less shit?

https://www.vuzix.com/products/in-development

I think after the failure of google glass, no corpos dared try again

Unfortunately, yes. They also bought target and made them have a shit store layout aswell.

Kmart Australia is notoriously a very different beast from the dystopian wasteland the US ones are

USA Kmart expanded into Australia decades ago in a 50% joint venture with the Australian supermarket chain Coles. US companies have a habit of divesting their assets here in tough times. Australian retail giant Wesfarmers purchased Kmart and made massive changes. Wesfarmers also owns the Target brand here but that was always just a brand, no US involvement. KMart just about wiped out Target and Wesfarmers seems to focus on developing Kmart and their Anko in store brand (Chinese manufactured stuff built to a price like everyone else).

Outside Australia they brand themselves as Anko. They had a small US trial in 2018-2020 where I think they were testing different concepts, not going for an expansion into the US market. They may be more interested in higher growth SE Asia as they apparently have stores in Manila.

Yes and is the most popular of three mainstream department stores. Big W is owned by Woolworths, but somehow is much more trusted that the Supermarket.

Kmart is different to the US Kmart due to the different demographic of Australia and New Zealand.

Target is the least popular; it is ironically known as “Targét” as parody of Popular Fashion trends and is on the decline.

Now that's a name I haven't heard in a long long time

It's more noticeable and visceral which is why people are up in arms about it. And rather than downplaying it why not use this as an opportunity to advocate for stringent privacy laws. Because I think you'll find most people do care about the excessive surveillance, they are just not aware of it.

Why the beatup and ‘outrage’ against these glasses of all things?

Presumably for the same reason people have disliked other secret/hidden cameras in the past.

How many times a day does someone have their mobile phone pointed at you, and you have no idea if they are taking photos or videos?

Exactly. They have it pointed at you. In other words, you are able to recognise that there is a camera there and that they may be filming. If someone walks into a public toilet or past a kindergarten wearing glasses, how would you know if they were recording? These glasses are designed to look like pretty standard consumer glasses and are difficult to recognise as smart devices from a distance. It also creates a problem where literally anyone wearing glasses in an area or situation where recording could be problematic becomes a suspect, even if they're just wearing normal glasses and have done nothing wrong.

So people are upset about this, but have no trouble with the government tracking where they are and what they are doing 24x7x365.

What are you basng the back half of that statement on? The people complaining about these glasses are also the ones complaining about overreach and surveillance because they are the same thing.

Most people don't care about police/government/corporate surveillance because that's impersonal and doesn't creep them out.

We did have fearmongering when cameraphones first became common in the 2000s, that perverts were going to be using them to secretly photograph people on the train etc. Presumably that did (and still does) happen somewhat, but its not a news story anymore.

PS: For example, "TubeCrush" (won't give them traffic by linking) is a site for women and gay/bi men to post photos of attractive men on the train. (They don't allow men to post photos of women, because that would be wrong, but the other way is aparrently ok)

Because all those other cctvs and stuff are owned by companies that don’t want to get sued for posting people’s images non-consensually online. Doesn’t matter if it’s legal to be recorded in public or not. If someone can say a company caused harm because of said imagery, it’s going to be expensive.

Individual people have no problem at all posting these videos and commenting on people they capture, and people viewing that clip will do so as well.

As for the rest; out of sight, out of mind. But even then some take measures to avoid being tracked.

Who can say what governments will do however when individuals are recording your activities, think pervert or criminal.