Norway's digital minister, Karianne Tung, has told AFP that the government wants smart glasses regulated more strictly than they are today, and she named the feature she would ban. “This could, for example, mean banning features such as facial recognition of other people in public spaces.” Tung described cameras and microphones being folded into glasses, headphones and other everyday objects, with the aim of stopping that equipment from recording people in public without their consent. She is convening a group of experts to advise on stronger privacy protections, and the statement was first picked up in late August.
The feature she wants prohibited is not on sale. Facial recognition is not in the glasses people are buying today, and Meta, which sells more of them than anyone, is reportedly moving in that direction. The glasses already on shelves run a live view of whatever is in front of the wearer through an AI model, which is the hard part of the job a face-matching feature would need. Norway has not written a rule and has set no timeline for one. It has named the feature and picked the people who will advise on it.