The Netherlands’ data protection authority wants camera glasses kept out of the places where people have the least say over being filmed. The Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens has asked that smart glasses carrying cameras be banned in hospitals, courtrooms and religious buildings, arguing that ordinary bystanders cannot tell whether someone is looking at them or recording them.

“People should be able to walk freely down the street without having to worry that someone is secretly filming them,” said Katja Mur, a board member at the Dutch regulator. “The GDPR specifically protects people who are recorded without their consent.”

The agency points out that the small recording light most makers build into the frame is not enough to tell people their personal data is being processed. It is urging the owners and managers of hospitals, courts and places of worship to write their own bans into their house rules.

The warning reaches past cameras. The regulator flags newer AI assistants that analyse what the wearer sees in real time, and notes vulnerabilities in some models that could let third parties reach recordings, photos or personal data without a password.

It wants privacy designed in from the start: makers should show clearly when a camera or an AI feature is active, make that indicator tamper-proof, and collect no more personal data than a feature needs. The fight echoes the Google Glass backlash of the last decade, and adds the Netherlands to the European authorities now circling camera glasses.

Source: DutchNews.nl, Escudo Digital