{"id":463800,"date":"2026-09-02T18:48:46","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T16:48:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/09\/02\/gli-occhiali-intelligenti-un-nuovo-grande-fratello-che-spaventa-leuropa\/"},"modified":"2026-09-02T19:16:33","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T17:16:33","slug":"smart-glasses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/09\/02\/smart-glasses\/","title":{"rendered":"“Smart glasses”: a new Big Brother that is causing alarm across Europe"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013 Do new technologies and innovation bring only opportunities? Or are there social risks, such as breaches of privacy, which are difficult to avoid? This is a wide-ranging, complex debate that the\u00a0academia<\/a>\u00a0and the political sphere continue to grapple with. Recently, the issue has returned to the forefront due to the advent of AI glasses. These so-called \u201csmart glasses” look like traditional spectacles but are equipped with microphones, speakers, cameras and a built-in artificial intelligence assistant. Major manufacturers include Meta and Amazon.\u00a0Wearers could use them as a camera, microphone, and device, and then transmit the footage to an app or a generative AI service<\/strong>\u2014such as ChatGPT.<\/p>\n

Their key concerns\u00a0were raised today<\/a>\u00a0(2 September) during the European Commission\u2019s daily press briefing. In particular, it was asked whether the Commission is considering the privacy issues that have arisen with the introduction of these new technologies onto the market and, consequently, whether it intends to legislate on the matter. One of the spokespersons,\u00a0Markus Lammert<\/strong>, replied that \u201cthe European Union already has a robust legal framework governing both artificial intelligence and the protection of personal data.<\/strong>\u201d This consists of the\u00a0AI Act<\/a>\u2014the EU regulation governing the development, marketing and use of artificial intelligence systems\u2014and the\u00a0GDPR<\/a>\u2014the EU General Data Protection Regulation, which governs the processing and transfer of natural persons\u2019 personal data within the EU\u2014whose rules \u201capply regardless of the technology used, such as artificial intelligence.<\/strong>\u201d It also clarified that \u201cdata protection authorities are responsible for monitoring and enforcing\u201d the rules and that, under the GDPR, \u201cthey are also authorised to issue guidelines on the processing of personal data.\u201d<\/p>\n

The issue has been raised because some countries have begun to take action independently. Last month, England and Wales banned the\u00a0use<\/a>\u00a0of smart glasses manufactured by Meta in\u00a0courts<\/a>. Anyone entering is required to hand them in at the entrance and collect them again on leaving. The measure was introduced due to concerns that testimonies might be recorded or that witnesses might be photographed. Elsewhere in the UK,\u00a0some cinema operators are introducing similar policies<\/a>\u00a0is also under consideration. According to a report by Reuters, they are considering banning or restricting them due to concerns regarding privacy and film piracy.\u00a0British citizens are also collecting\u00a0signatures for a petition addressed to their Parliament<\/a><\/strong>. They are calling for an immediate ban on the sale and promotion of glasses capable of recording. The reason? \u201cSmart glasses allow people to record others without their knowledge or consent and upload this content to the internet.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Germany, the battle against smart glasses has even led to criminal proceedings. In August, the human rights organisation\u00a0HateAid<\/strong>,\u00a0has lodged a complaint<\/a>\u00a0against Meta, Ray-Ban, Oakley and other eyewear retailers with the State Prosecutor\u2019s Office in Frankfurt am Main. HateAid\u00a0argues that the sale of such devices constitutes a criminal offence<\/strong>. In a press release, the organisation described the launch of smart glasses as \u201ca manifestation of the growing power and monopoly of tech companies,\u201d after having, for years, \u201cdocumented a growing number of cases of image-based digital violence, in which women in particular are filmed and portrayed in a sexualised manner.\u201d For this reason, \u201cit is not uncommon for victims to discover years later that the footage is circulating online, after it has already been widely disseminated.\u201d In addition to the complaint, a\u00a0petition<\/a>\u00a0was filed calling for a ban on the sale of Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses in Germany; for the security of the devices to be guaranteed \u201cright from the design stage\u201d; and for people not to be \u201cleft to fend for themselves\u201d when seeking justice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some countries are pushing for a ban because those who wear them could use them as cameras and\/or microphones. A German human rights organisation says: \u201cIt is not uncommon for victims to discover, years later, that their footage is circulating online\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7908,"featured_media":463784,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25710],"tags":[26267,27281,33332,27368,35582,27282,26691,27637],"class_list":["post-463800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-net-tech-en","tag-gdpr-en","tag-intelligenza-artificiale-generativa","tag-meta-en","tag-occhiali","tag-privacy-en","tag-scotland-en","tag-kingdom-united-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7908"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=463800"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463800\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":463805,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463800\/revisions\/463805"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/463784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=463800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=463800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=463800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}