Norway Moves to Tighten Smart Glasses Rules as Privacy Concerns Grow
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Norway is moving toward stricter rules for smart glasses and other wearable devices equipped with cameras and artificial intelligence. Digitalisation and Public Governance Minister Karianne Tung announced on Tuesday, August 25, that an expert group will examine possible new regulations, including a potential ban on features that allow users to identify other people through facial recognition in public spaces.
The government is not proposing a ban on smart glasses or their sale at this stage. The concern is what these devices can do as cameras, microphones and artificial intelligence move from phones carried in a pocket to technology worn directly on a person's face and used around other people.
Tung said rapid technological development is putting increasing pressure on privacy and personal data protection and argued that Norway needs stricter rules than those currently in place. One option she specifically raised is prohibiting functions that can recognize other people's faces in public spaces.
The issue extends beyond glasses. Norwegian authorities point to a broader trend in which artificial intelligence is being combined with cameras and microphones embedded in everyday products, including glasses, earbuds and other wearable devices. That creates new privacy questions because people nearby may have little control over how information about them is captured or processed.
The expert group will therefore examine smart glasses as well as other devices that combine cameras with artificial intelligence and recommend possible regulatory approaches to the government. Any proposed new rules would then be assessed and put through Norway's consultation process. No final ban or detailed new regulation has yet been adopted.
Tung is also asking public and private sector employers to consider their own rules for smart glasses and similar devices in workplaces. Norway's education minister has already encouraged schools to address smart glasses in their internal regulations.
Norway's move raises a question that is likely to become more important as wearable AI spreads: when one person's device can record or analyze the people around them, where should the user's freedom to use the technology end and another person's right to privacy begin? The Norwegian review is aimed at defining that boundary before these devices become a routine and largely invisible part of public life.
