Prof McIntyre Warns AI Glasses Can Be Used as Harassment Tools

Politicians in Norway are advancing a proposal to temporarily ban smart glasses in specific public venues, driven by mounting anxieties over covert photography, video capture, and audio recording. As internet-connected eyewear featuring integrated cameras and speakers becomes more accessible, lawmakers are weighing preemptive restrictions to protect individual privacy.

Norway Aims to Restrict Smart Glasses in Targeted Areas

The Norwegian government’s legislative initiative aims to restrict smart glasses in targeted areas before pervasive usage normalizes the technology beyond regulatory reach. Professor TJ McIntyre, Chair of Digital Rights Ireland and Associate Professor at UCD’s Sutherland School of Law, endorsed the strategy during an interview with RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, calling it the correct approach.

Prof McIntyre emphasized that proactive governance is essential, stating, you can’t have a situation where this becomes pervasive and normalised and then try to fix the problem after the fact.

He noted that the upcoming Norwegian framework largely formalizes restrictions already taking root organically across various institutions. The Norwegian ban is really codifying something that’s happening already, so lots of places have already indicated that smart glasses can’t be used, leisure centres, the court service in Ireland has indicated they can’t be used in Irish courts, he stated.

Educational and hospitality venues are enacting similar prohibitions independently. I’ve banned them in my own lectures. You see pubs, for example, the entire chain of Wetherspoon pubs has recently banned them, Prof McIntyre added.

Experts Warn That Covert Wearables Enable Harassment

Beyond general surveillance concerns, legal experts point to specific harms tied to the discreet nature of the hardware. Prof McIntyre identified the primary risks as quasi-sexual abuse and their deployment as a harassment tool, describing the wearables as essentially covert, stealth devices.

You’ve seen people filming in places like beaches, filming people in bikinis … it’s been used in places like swimming pools sometimes, other public places like gyms and that’s why sometimes you see this referred to as the ‘pervert glasses’, Prof McIntyre said on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland.

RTÉ’s Morning Ireland

He added that while that behavior represents a specific subset of the issue, more generally then you have this being used as a harassment tool.

Prof McIntyre pointed to a United States-based study from the preceding month showing that school-aged children equipped with smart glasses almost invariably to target girls, going up to them asking for names, numbers and the like, and then posting footage online when the girls declined their advances.

The core vulnerability stems from how the hardware contrasts with conventional recording tools. The point is that these are essentially stealth, covert devices. They’re being used for that purpose because that’s what they’re designed to be used for. It’s very different to traditional photography with a camera where it’s visible or even photography with a phone where it’s obvious that somebody is doing something, Prof McIntyre explained.

Manufacturer-implemented safety features, such as Meta’s flashing LED light designed to signal active recording, offer limited deterrence. According to Prof McIntyre, there’s a thriving market already of people who will, for a small fee, disable these or show you how to disable them just by drilling them out, covering them with epoxy and so on.

Consequently, public demand for strict exclusion zones remains high, particularly in private spaces. The point is that people want to be sure that they’re not going to be secretly monitored in this way, he noted, adding, I don’t see how people could be comfortable in the gym or the swimming pool otherwise.

Regulatory bodies face pressure to examine wider ecosystem implications alongside local bans. The Data Protection Commission should be looking into the wider issues associated with this, including the way in which this data is being streamed back to Meta and the uses that Meta is making of that, which is a separate problem, Prof McIntyre urged.