Like Android smartphones and tablets, Google Glass comes equipped with Google’s voice-to-text translation engine; in other words, you can dictate to Google Glass and, using voice recognition, it will type what you want to say. It turns out Google pulled an Apple on everyone and decided to implement a filter in Google Glass that censors swear words.

According to a report by Geek, Google Glass will filter cuss words you dictate to Glass. As Geek points out, this limitation is not to Glass alone; the same limitation is on Android and whatever other product or service that makes use of Google’s voice-to-text translation service (the filter is at the server level). However, the issue with Glass is there is no other way to input text and there is no opt-out for the filter. This means Google is essentially censoring your speech.

Of course this may change when Google Glass is available for the mass public, but it is highly unlikely. As already mentioned, Android and other existing products that use Google’s voice-to-text live with this limitation in place so I doubt Google will change it for Glass.

Now, many people will argue this is a justified censor. After all, who likes swear words? However, if I buy a gadget that comes with a built-in feature, I don’t want a company telling me what I can and cannot do with those features. If I did, I’d go buy Apple. I don’t buy Apple for many reasons, and lack of control of what I can and cannot do is one of the reasons. In my mind, I paid for it; it is my gadget. So if I want to cuss, I will bloody cuss and Google has no right to tell me otherwise. To me, it is more a matter of principal than blocking swear words per se. What will be next… blocking search results and giving me no option to opt out of the block? Bah!

[via Geek]