The proposed ban will be a test case for broad restrictions on the eyewear after fierce backlash over their use, says Richard Milne for the Financial Times.
OSLO: “Pervert glasses” that enable privacy intrusion or one of the most important retail products in decades? Few recent consumer technologies have sparked such a fierce backlash as the AI-enabled eyewear now being offered by the likes of Meta.
Now Norway is set to provide a test case for broad restrictions on their use. Up until this week, any bans around the world have been largely piecemeal. Courts in the UK and US, Norwegian oil company Equinor and schools in Oslo are among those to prohibit their use in recent months.
But on Monday (Oct 5), Norway’s centre-left government became the first in the world to propose a ban - albeit temporary - on the use of AI glasses in certain public places. Many of the details remain to be worked out, including exactly where the ban would apply - the idea would be to enact it in the most sensitive areas such as schools and changing rooms. But bringing a proposal to Norway’s parliament is “a high priority” for digitalisation minister Torgeir Micaelsen.
SENSE OF RIGHTING WRONGS
For many policymakers in Europe, there is a distinct sense of righting wrongs and avoiding a laissez-faire approach that they now regret for other technologies.
“We must avoid making the same mistake we made 15 years ago with social media, taking no political action,” Micaelsen says.
AI glasses have been pushed particularly hard by Meta, but others such as Huawei offer them and Apple and Google could follow. Tech companies argue they could be a better gateway to AI than smartphones.
But these companies also like the idea of training the glasses on real-life interactions involving audio and video - something that causes great disquiet. Barely a day passes without a headline on the potential misuse of smart glasses, from men approaching women on the street without telling them they are filming to this week’s revelations by one Danish MP that he recorded members of parliament at work.
Worries abound about how the glasses could be used to spy on women and children, particularly in settings such as changing rooms, and how privacy safeguards - such as a flashing light that shows when they are recording - could be overridden.
A survey by France’s data protection office, Commission Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés, this year found the vast majority of people - 67 per cent of respondents - thought smart glasses posed a risk to people’s privacy.
A COMMON EU APPROACH?
Norway is not alone in taking action. The European Data Protection Board, an independent body representing privacy regulators across Europe, has commissioned a report on the social acceptability of smart glasses to guide lawmakers. Australia’s government has asked for advice on whether to ban them from its offices and service centres after a number of the country’s local councils prohibited them from swimming pools, offices and more. And Dutch retailer Hans Anders this month became one of the first in the world to stop the sale of Meta’s Ray-Ban glasses over privacy concerns.
Norway, for now though, has gone the furthest, and says it will bring out a proposal for a temporary ban soon as well as setting up an expert group to lay the groundwork for permanent regulation. The locations for a ban could include beaches, museums, shopping centres, kindergartens, playgrounds, healthcare facilities, changing rooms for fitness centres, and even universities, the government has indicated.
Micaelsen concedes “regulating this type of technology is complex and raises a number of questions”. But the EDPB report may guide the development of a common EU approach to regulating smart glasses in much the same way that early, fragmented national positions on cookies and ad tech eventually converged into harmonised guidance, according to law firm Gerrish.
The French regulator CNIL has already called for enhanced vigilance on smart glasses. “The rise of smart glasses could give rise to a significant risk of widespread surveillance and its trivialisation ... The relatively moderate cost of these devices could lead to a saturation of the social space by sensors,” it said.
Any restrictions will probably be met by strong protests from tech companies given their commercial importance. Analysts at Counterpoint Research forecast more than US$1 trillion will be spent on wearable devices between now and 2032. But the concerns among campaigners about what social media has done to a generation of children show the risks for governments in Europe and beyond of allowing tech companies free rein.