The rising concern over smart glasses

The rising concern over smart glasses

The idea of smart glasses - eyeglasses that have cameras and other kinds of tech built into them - is nothing new. They’ve been in development for years, and really came to prominence with the release of Google Glass over a decade ago. But this year, Kmart released a pair for $89 in Australia which triggered a rush of buyers, followed by a rush of privacy concerns. So in this Squiz Shortcut, we’ll unpick:

• What smart glasses actually are

• Why they’re causing concern

• And what might happen next

🙋🏻‍♀️ This newsletter was written by Andrew Williams and Larissa Huntington

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Squiz the Shortcut

First up, let’s take a look at the origins of smart glasses…
Google released the idea for Google Glass back in 2013, and there was loads of interest in them. A pair of glasses that a superhero like Iron Man might wear allowing people to see the world in a different way? Sign us up… But the promise ended up being a bit more appealing than the reality, and Google Glass was discontinued a little later…

Why didn’t they take off?
It was for plenty of reasons, but one of the key ones was exactly the main concern when it comes to smart glasses in 2026 - and that’s privacy… 

So what makes them smart?
The smart bit is that they’re like a wearable computer. And while some pairs are built for gaming, projecting a screen onto the inside of the lens and don't have a camera, a basic pair of smart glasses has a camera built in. This means users can capture vision and audio of what they're seeing and hearing.

And some go further than that?
Yep… Some pairs have artificial intelligence built in, so the user also gets an AI chatbot or assistant interpreting what they're seeing and hearing, and feeding data back to them. 

Is there much demand for them?
Yes, it’s quite strong - pretty much every major tech company is getting in on the action, including big players like Samsung, Apple and Meta.

So why are they in the news?
It’s because if someone wearing a pair of smart glasses is filming or recording you, you don’t necessarily know it’s happening. That’s what kicked this story into high gear in July…

What happened in July?
That’s when Kmart released its own pair of smart glasses under its Anko range. Normally a pair of smart glasses would set you back hundreds of dollars - that price was a barrier so they weren’t really that common. But the Anko glasses were much more affordable at $89, meaning they were suddenly within reach of a whole lot more people. 

So they took off?
They did… That lower price range saw them go from niche tech into the mainstream. And it’s not just Kmart selling cheap versions - there are others going for a similar price on Amazon, Temu, and the like (and some are priced as low as $30). But what put the Kmart version into the headlines was how quickly they sold out - they were gone within a week. Questions were quickly asked about the reasons behind such a high demand. 

Is this where privacy comes into the picture?
Yep… As we mentioned, it’s very easy for smart glasses to record you without your consent - and that opens up a huge can of worms. Electronic Frontiers Australia chair John Pane says there’s a difference between recording someone via smart glasses and recording someone via phone - phones require a gesture or movement that gives away that you might be recording, whereas smart glasses don’t.

Has that led some people to use them to covertly record people?
Yes… Particularly women and children without their knowledge or consent, and that’s why they’ve been described in many quarters as ‘pervert glasses’. 

Is there any research to back that up?
There is… Research out of Monash University found that a number of smart glasses owners admitted to recording people without their consent, including in places like change rooms and at the beach. And they’ve also been used to upload content online to shame or harass people. 

Just explain that a bit more…
It’s been a recent thing on social media - these glasses have led to people being shamed and harassed online. One example you might have seen is so-called pick-up artists (mostly men who make a sport out of trying to pick up women) recording their encounters secretly and then uploading them to social platforms.

Has any action been taken over them?
Well they’ve been banned from some places, including many classrooms around Australia, and Brisbane City Council has warned people that anyone seen to be using them to record people at public pools will be ejected - although you can still bring them in and wear them. There was also a petition calling on Kmart to withdraw the glasses. But even if that happened, they’re widely available.

Apart from video games, how else are they helpful for people who use them legally?
They can be very useful for people who are blind or have low vision and they can translate what people are saying into captions for people who have difficulty hearing. So, the question for our politicians is how to address the problems they bring without also taking away the benefits… 

Are our laws keeping up?
In a nutshell, no… Taking broad national action on the tech requires some heavy lifting - so on 7 August, Attorney-General Michelle Rowland wrote to our privacy watchdog - that’s the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner - asking for it to look into the privacy concerns around smart glasses. She listed the concerns we’ve outlined, but there are some possible legal gaps.

What sort of gaps?
Privacy Commissioner Carly Kind actually posted a blog about this around the same time that Rowland wrote to her. In it, she points out that our Privacy Act only applies to businesses and government agencies - and it only applies when those entities collect personal information. So essentially, it doesn’t cover an individual collecting personal information on another individual - and that creates an issue when it comes to how these smart glasses are regulated. 

What about state and territory laws?
There are legal reforms in the works, but they’re not there yet. In the individual states and territories, some laws do cover covert audio recording, but there’s not much for video. In many places around Australia, our laws are way behind where technology is up to. 

So the upshot is…
If you think you’ve been filmed in public without your permission or knowledge, you have limited legal avenues to tackle it. That’s how far the laws are behind the tech - you’ve been able to record video fairly covertly in public for years and there’s not very much protection around it.

Is anyone trying to fast-track tightening things up?
Yes… While the laws get figured out, some parliamentarians are pushing for more action in the short term. The Greens are proposing a 12-month import pause on smart glasses with carve-outs for legitimate uses, as well as making it illegal to film, share or store footage of someone from a wearable recording device without consent. The thing is, the government has already ruled that out…

What were the reasons for that?
There are 2 main reasons… Firstly, it says an import ban on smart glasses would affect a whole range of other trade, and it’s too legally complex to enforce. And the other reason is the legitimate benefits we mentioned earlier, specifically for blind or vision-impaired Australians. Vision Australia has supported that view - it says the glasses have been a game changer for vision-impaired Aussies.

Has anyone else weighed in?
Yes… eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant has suggested a number of workarounds, where the tech in the smart glasses would blur people’s faces if they hadn’t consented to being recorded. She also suggested that livestreaming be put on a delay, and she’s called on manufacturers to make it more obvious to people when they’re being recorded. 

And where have things landed?
The lack of movement from the government has irritated both the Greens - who are still pushing for change on this - and the Coalition, with Shadow Attorney-General Michaelia Cash pointing out that the latest draft privacy legislation had the chance to make a change but it ignored the issue entirely. 

So what’s next?
The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner is still doing its work looking into the glasses, and the new Privacy Act reforms have been drafted and are out for consultation. But as the tech develops and - you would imagine - gets cheaper, the debate isn’t likely to go away anytime soon. 

Zooming out…
It’s part of a broader public debate over privacy. In May, the Privacy Commissioner put out some research showing that 87% of Australians are more concerned about privacy issues than they were 5 years ago. It’s from a survey that the Office conducts every 3 years - and as it becomes easier to record people, and to be recorded - personal privacy protection is becoming more and more of an important social and political issue.

And the outlook for the glasses?
We’ll see if Kmart and other retailers continue to sell them, and what form they take, given demand for them is still strong, despite the concerns raised over some of the ways they’re being used. 

Onto our Recommendations

Reading: Carly Kind’s blog on the smart glasses issue, which gives you a good outline of some of the legal issues we’re dealing with here. 

Reading: This piece from the ABC goes into the possibility of the import ban and some of the ways that smart glasses are being misused.

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