Norway's government said this week it will ask parliament to impose a temporary ban on AI-enabled smart glasses in a wide range of public places, becoming the first major country to move from debating wearable-device privacy to proposing concrete restrictions.
Digitalisation Minister Torgeir Micaelsen said the center-left government will introduce legislation "as soon as possible" covering places such as schools, kindergartens, playgrounds and youth clubs, parks, beaches, museums and shopping centers, concerts and sporting events, and settings "where privacy is particularly important," including healthcare facilities and gym changing rooms, according to reporting from the Financial Times. An expert group will spend the interim studying what permanent rules should look like.
I am concerned about the introduction of powerful new technology where people risk being photographed, filmed, or recorded without their knowledge.
Torgeir Micaelsen, Norway's Minister of Digitalisation and Public Governance
Micaelsen was careful to distinguish the plan from a blanket prohibition, telling reporters the government does not want a society "where people are concerned about hidden audio recordings, photography, and filming in places and situations where they are used to being without being monitored." Devices would remain legal for private use and in contexts without filming risk.
A problem bigger than one country
The announcement follows piecemeal bans already adopted by Norwegian institutions: schools in Oslo have barred the glasses, and energy company Equinor has banned them from its offices and offshore platforms. Internationally, Australia is weighing restrictions in certain public spaces, courtrooms in several countries already bar recording-capable eyewear, and Britain's cinema trade body has restricted camera-equipped glasses in theaters. In the US, California's governor vetoed a bill that would have penalized unauthorized smart-glasses recordings, and Dutch retailer Hans Anders paused sales of Ray-Ban Meta glasses pending clearer rules, according to reporting from the Associated Press.
Adam Smith of the advocacy group Privacy International welcomed Norway's move, saying "no reality exists in which people expect to be secretly surveilled going about their daily lives." Meta, Google and OpenAI have all pitched camera- and microphone-equipped glasses as a successor to the smartphone for everyday AI interaction, betting that talking to an assistant that can see and hear its surroundings is simpler than typing into an app; analysts at Counterpoint Research expect consumers to spend more than $1 trillion on wearable devices between 2026 and 2032.
Norway's bill will need to pass the Storting before taking effect, and the government has not set a date for the vote. How strictly it defines "AI glasses" — and whether it captures cheaper camera-equipped copycats alongside devices like Meta's Ray-Bans — will shape how much of the fast-growing category the law actually reaches.
