Smart glasses are rapidly moving from a niche gadget to a mainstream wearable technology, but their growing popularity is also raising concerns over privacy, consent and the potential misuse of discreet cameras in public spaces.
The latest generation of smart glasses allows users to make phone calls, interact with artificial intelligence through voice commands and capture photographs and videos without reaching for a smartphone. The convenience has made the technology increasingly attractive to content creators, while concerns about secret recording have prompted some businesses and campaigners to call for tighter restrictions.
Wetherspoons, which operates nearly 800 pubs across the UK, has prohibited customers from using smart glasses to record footage inside its premises. Monopoly Events, which organises Comic Con Northern Ireland, has also banned the glasses at its events because of concerns about covert filming.
The controversy comes as social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram continue to reward spontaneous video content, creating a new generation of creators who use wearable cameras to capture interactions with strangers.
Among them is 31-year-old Pearse Vallely from Ballymurphy in west Belfast, who earns a living through social media content. Vallely uses Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses to record his point of view while walking through streets and interacting with members of the public, often greeting strangers with rhyming phrases.
One of his most successful videos, filmed in Belfast city centre, received around 600,000 views on TikTok. Vallely believes the positive and light-hearted nature of his interactions has helped him avoid complaints from people appearing in his videos.
He said he had never published footage after someone asked him not to and had not received a request to remove any of his videos. According to him, people generally understand that his intention is not to ridicule them but to create positive interactions.
Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses are currently among the most prominent products in the expanding market. The company says more than seven million pairs have been sold. Priced at several hundred pounds, the glasses combine the appearance of conventional Ray-Ban eyewear with a built-in camera that can be activated using a touch control.
When recording begins, a white light pulses on the glasses, intended to alert people nearby that the camera is operating. Meta has also said it recently introduced an update that prevents the camera from recording if the indicator light has been interfered with.
Researchers expect the market to expand considerably, with estimates suggesting that as many as 100 million people could purchase AI or smart glasses in the coming years if products from multiple manufacturers achieve similar popularity.
However, the ability to record without visibly holding a phone has become one of the technology’s biggest sources of controversy. Women’s rights campaigners have warned that people may not realise when they are being recorded, particularly in situations involving harassment.
Elaine Crory, a women’s sector lobbyist at the Women’s Resource and Development Agency, said conventional cameras and smartphones are generally easier for people to notice, allowing individuals to avoid being filmed. Smart glasses, she argued, could make that much more difficult because people may not recognise that the wearer is operating a camera.
She also raised concerns about the technology being used for activities that are already illegal, including upskirting and voyeuristic recording. Crory said current legislation had not necessarily kept pace with wearable technology and questioned what legal remedies were available to people filmed without their knowledge in public places.
The Northern Ireland Department of Justice said that although regulation of Meta glasses was not specifically a matter for the department, existing criminal offences could apply when their use crossed the legal threshold. It pointed specifically to offences involving voyeurism, including upskirting.
Businesses have also begun introducing their own restrictions. Wetherspoons described the ability of smart glasses to facilitate discreet surveillance as contrary to common sense, while other venues have adopted bans to prevent covert recording.
There have also been incidents highlighting public anger over the technology. In December last year, a woman on the New York subway was widely praised after breaking a man’s Meta smart glasses following a dispute over their use. In Scotland, police launched an investigation in July following complaints about a TikTok creator accused of secretly filming members of the public using the glasses.
At the same time, smart glasses are being promoted for purposes that go well beyond social media entertainment. Belfast optometrist Geoff McConville, who sells Meta glasses, acknowledged concerns about inappropriate use but said the technology could significantly improve the lives of people with disabilities.
He pointed to patients with poor vision who use AI-powered text-to-speech functions to read newspapers, signs and other written information. For elderly and visually impaired users, he described the technology as potentially transformative.
Meta has similarly defended the technology, arguing that smart glasses offer important benefits to people with limited vision or hearing. The company has said that blanket restrictions could prevent people from accessing useful assistive features, while acknowledging that certain locations should reasonably remain off limits to recording.
The debate is therefore increasingly centred not simply on whether smart glasses should be allowed, but on how they should be used. Vallely argues that the intention behind recording matters, saying technology will inevitably be used responsibly by some and irresponsibly by others.
Meanwhile, social media companies are also under pressure to address abusive content generated using wearable cameras. Instagram head Adam Mosseri has said content involving exploitation or harassment of individuals can be removed from the platform.
As smart glasses become more affordable and increasingly integrated with artificial intelligence, the tension between convenience, creativity and privacy is likely to intensify. The technology may offer hands-free communication and valuable assistance to people with disabilities, but its ability to turn ordinary surroundings into an almost invisible recording environment means questions of consent and responsible use are unlikely to disappear anytime soon.
