Norway may ban smart glasses over facial recognition and privacy concerns

Norway is moving toward a potential ban on smart glasses and other camera-equipped wearable headsets, with digital minister Karianne Tung citing serious concerns about privacy and the growing integration of artificial intelligence into everyday objects. Devices made by companies like Meta and Snap sit at the center of the debate, or broadly, internet-connected wearables with built-in cameras that critics, and some consumers, have taken to calling “pervert glasses” due to their capacity for covert surveillance. The concern is not hypothetical: facial recognition capabilities are expected to arrive in these products, raising the stakes considerably for civil liberties advocates who argue the technology enables monitoring of ordinary people without their knowledge or consent.

Tung described a clear trend toward combining AI with cameras and microphones embedded in glasses, headphones, hats, and other common objects, warning that the government must act before the technology becomes entrenched in public spaces. A ban on the use of facial recognition against other people in public is one option on the table, and Tung has announced plans to assemble a panel of experts to advise the government on strengthening privacy protections. Norway’s deliberations add to a broader international conversation about where the line should be drawn between wearable innovation and the right to move through the world without being recorded or identified, and the outcome of its expert review could influence how other countries approach the same question.