European lawmakers and activists are heightening calls to regulate or ban AI-powered smart glasses amid privacy concerns after incidents of secretly filmed footage and growing public backlash.

The review focuses on camera glasses from Meta and Snap and flags potential future facial recognition capabilities.

A government proposal targets facial recognition in consumer wearables used in public spaces and proposes creating an expert advisory group to recommend regulatory options.

Proponents highlight benefits such as enhanced accessibility and hands-free information access in controlled educational settings, like procedural training and real-time observation in labs or clinics.

In one case, footage was uploaded to social media without consent, breaching trust and ending the interaction.

There is concern that campus academic freedom and intellectual risk-taking could be stifled if recordings can be made without consent and edited to alter context.

Some claim stickers can block recording light, but associations say videos can still be captured and that the light isn’t always visible in bright conditions or at distance.

Misuse risks include voyeurism, stalking, harassment for social media, distraction leading to accidents, and the recording or processing of confidential information in workplaces.

Organizations should proactively assess exposure, map risk across coverage lines, and engage carriers with risk management and responsive claims support.

Regulatory and institutional responses remain underdeveloped, with a need for comprehensive policies and a campus-wide risk-management strategy.

Disclosures about AI features and recording capabilities should be required when devices are in use to create defensible records of risk management efforts.

From a data protection perspective, users can become joint data controllers when processing others’ data for AI training outside private settings, triggering GDPR Article 26 and highlighting shared responsibility with Meta, which has not provided a clear data-sharing agreement.