Seattle dive bar bans Google glasses

• Tweet

A Seattle dive bar's Facebook post preemptively banning Google's forthcoming voice-activated smart-glasses went viral this weekend.

"For the record, The 5 Point is the first Seattle business to ban in advance Google Glasses. And ass kickings will be encouraged for violators," the post said.

Google's high-tech glasses -- which allow the wearer to take video, photos, search for directions and even translate phrases -- won't be available for purchase for another year. But the 5 Point's Facebook announcement touched a nerve with social media users, who debated whether the glasses were too creepy for some public places.

"I think it's pretty good to ban. I don't want my photo/video to be randomly uploaded to the internet when I am trying to have a private moment, " one Facebook commenter wrote.

"Looks like I won't be going to your bar, get with the times!" another commenter wrote.

“You have to understand the culture of the 5 Point, which is a sometimes seedy, maybe notorious place," owner Dave Meinert said on a local radio show. "People want to go there and be not known … and definitely don’t want to be secretly filmed or videotaped and immediately put on the Internet.”

“Part of this is a joke, to be funny on Facebook, and get reaction. But part of it’s serious, because we don’t let people film other people or take photos unwanted of people in the bar, because it is kind of a private place that people go," Meinert added.