House Bill 2603
In a memo, Representative Joe Ciresi proposes that all wearable devices capable of recording footage be required to display an indicator when they’re doing so. Though smart glasses like the Meta Ray-Ban models and the new Samsung and Google smart glasses are the primary targets of this bill, other wearable devices would also be subject to these new restrictions.
How smart glasses will be affected
Samsung and Google recently announced their own smart glasses. | Image by Google
Currently, some smart glasses don’t let everyone in the vicinity know if they are being recorded. This has already led to several cases of people being filmed without their consent.
The bill, if it passes, will force manufacturers to incorporate a visual indicator on their glasses that will make it clear that they are currently recording a video. This indicator will most likely come in the form of a light that turns on somewhere on the frame.If you just use your smart glasses for normal recordings from time to time, you won’t be affected. At most, what might happen is that others around you will become aware of the fact that you are not wearing an ordinary pair of glasses.
Of course, if the bill passes and then gains popularity across the States, or even the world, then the smart glasses market will fundamentally change over a few years.
Smart glasses need this
Such an indicator will solve many problems if all smart glasses are required to feature it by law. This way, customers and the people in a user’s vicinity can have peace of mind, something that is sorely needed seeing how distrusting the public is of smart glasses.
The general public is wary of smart glasses and those who use them. | Image by Reddit
The Meta Ray-Ban and a number of other smart glasses already have such an indicator, though some people remove theirs. It can also sometimes go unnoticed, leading to scenarios where the Meta Ray-Ban leak intimate moments to workers in another country.
As of now, this is just a bill. If it passes and becomes law, then the state of Pennsylvania will become the first place in the U.S. to require all smart glasses to clearly indicate when they’re recording a video. This will also affect video glasses that have existed for a long time before smart glasses even showed up.
It’s a mostly positive proposal
In my opinion, this is a bill that solves some important problems for this emerging market. Smart glasses are taking off — Apple is designing its own pairs of glasses as well — and this issue of privacy will only become more pressing as time goes on.
In addition to a visual indicator, I think that smart glasses manufacturers also need to make it mandatory for recording to be disabled if the light is covered up or removed. There are almost no downsides to the changes that this bill would introduce, except perhaps for someone needing to record an interaction with a dangerous individual in secret.
Plus, science fiction movies always show glasses and other futuristic devices turning on a light when recording or playing something back, so that’s just bonus points for this bill in my book.
