San Francisco Frontiers - Europe eyes battle over 'pervert' AI glasses

Anyone wearing smart glasses can take photos, film videos, listen to music, make phone calls, translate text or interact with an AI assistant, with sales now hitting the millions.

The devices grabbed attention this summer after a marketing tie-up between Kylie Jenner, beauty mogul and member of the Kardashian dynasty, and tech giant Meta.

Since smartphones are now embedded in daily life, Big Tech is increasingly looking to glasses as the next big thing in wearable technology, helped by AI's advances.

A 2013 push by Google failed to take off but Meta's smart spectacles, developed in partnership with Ray-Ban maker EssilorLuxottica, have fared much better.

Meta sold some seven million pairs in 2025, up from a total of two million in 2023 and 2024. Others, including Google and Snap, are also preparing to roll out AI-powered glasses.

But with exponential growth came the backlash.

Worries reached a peak in the summer in Europe, especially in Britain which saw intense media coverage of so-called "pervert glasses" alongisde reports that Meta is developing a facial recognition feature to be integrated into the devices.

In one case, a 17-year-old girl told British broadcaster Channel 4 News in August how she had been approached by a man who covertly recorded her and their interaction.

Contacted by AFP, Meta said it has taken multiple steps to prevent tampering with the blinking LED light intended to show other people the device is recording -- a key concern of critics.

"These investments are already having a deterrent effect," it said, saying companies offering to disable the LED lights had shut down as a result.

- EU 'must act' -

In the meantime, Norway's capital Oslo banned the glasses in schools this week as the government mulls regulating their use and considers a ban on features that enable facial recognition in public.

There are similar calls for the European Union to take up the issue, while France's CNIL data protection watchdog has urged "vigilance".

A Swedish designer, Mateusz Pozar, launched a "Ban Ray" site earlier this year, providing signs to ban smart glasses from venues and selling stickers.

Pozar said he started the site after his girlfriend was approached by two men wearing the glasses and recording her, which "freaked her out".

He said he wanted a discussion about how "we as a society feel about this technology" before it becomes ubiquitous. "This is a lever to have a discussion about privacy, personal rights, control over my data."

Pozar also pointed to his concerns about data extraction after reports about Kenya-based workers who reviewed graphic content captured by Meta's AI glasses.

EU lawmaker Veronika Cifrova Ostrihonova told AFP she raised the issue with the bloc's executive after the first cases of women being secretly filmed, seeking to know if the glasses comply with data protection and AI rules.

"I am still awaiting an answer," the Slovak lawmaker said.

"We need clear EU rules to protect and strong enforcement to make sure new technologies don't come at the expense of our fundamental rights," she said.

The European Commission said national data protection authorities were "responsible for monitoring and enforcing" privacy rules.

The EU executive would not be drawn on what further action it could take, but the independent European Data Protection Board commissioned a report expected in autumn looking at the glasses' "social acceptability".

- Consent issues -

That report will guide the European Parliament, where lawmaker Alex Agius Saliba said there were concerns across the political spectrum.

"We must act as soon as possible," he said.

"For me, they are still 'pervert glasses'," Saliba said. "As things stand today, we should definitely go for a ban" until they're proven safe.

A "Stop Smart Glasses" campaign launched in Britain and Ireland, with a petition and call for supporters to contact stores to stop their sale.

The petition has more than 9,100 signatures so far. The British government must respond if it reaches 10,000.

One of the campaign's founders, teacher Guy Holder, said he had several concerns about the glasses including their effects on girls and women and a broader "invasion" of public spaces that could lead to "total surveillance".

"We are also concerned more broadly about an atmosphere in which it feels like anybody can film anybody without their knowledge or consent," he told AFP.

E.Cruz--SFF