The nearly universal adoption of smartphones in the late 2000s changed more than how we waste time while waiting in lines. With nearly everyone carrying a high-quality camera and microphone in their pocket—and the ability to instantly broadcast anything to a potential audience of millions—our collective concept of privacy has been permanently altered. If you’re not a little concerned with how what you do in public would play on YouTube, you’re not paying attention.
What the general public thinks of as “privacy” may have shifted, but the law may not have kept pace. “Current laws do not provide the protection that most people would probably expect that they should,” says David B. Hoppe, an international transactional lawyer who specializes in emerging legal issues in media and technology.
State and federal laws have criminalized some kinds of recordings in public, like shooting videos up people's skirts, but in general, the First Amendment provides broad protection of people's right to take photos and videos of whatever they can see. "In general, our presumption is that capturing photos, videos, or other data from public spaces is unrestricted," says Eric Goldman, a professor at Santa Clara University School of Law and Co-Director of the High Tech Law Institute.
How you use a recording matters, though. “An issue that could arise is whether or not there's a commercial aspect to its use,” Hoppe says. “In many states there could be an obligation to have cleared the publicity rights from any individuals who are identifiable in the video.”
Private businesses are a bit different, though
Courts have largely held that a patron in a private business that is open to the public, like a store or a restaurant, can expect more privacy than they have while on a public sidewalk, but less than they’d have if they were somewhere really private, like their home. "It gets into expectations of privacy," explains Goldman. "A restaurant could be anywhere from family-seating, where that expectation would be unreasonable, to a private booth that has 50 feet in any direction from any other seat, which might be a more reasonable expectation of privacy."
So if you turn on your Ray-Ban Metas in the gym, you probably won’t be arrested, but the gym could/should have a “no photography” policy that it could enforce by having you banned from the premises and calling the cops if you won't leave. Of course, recording in private areas of any business, like the locker room of said gym, is illegal everywhere in the U.S.
Video vs. audio recording
Courts have largely agreed that recording conversations in public is protected by the Constitution, as long as everyone in the conversation knows they are being recorded and agrees to it. The opposite situation—a third party recording a private conversation without the participants’ knowledge—would often be considered “eavesdropping,” and that’s often a crime.
Here’s a breakdown of one-party consent states and all-party consent states. If you have any doubts about the legality of a recording, consult with a lawyer, or just don't hit record.
The other side of the coin: what about the users' privacy?
"Some [data collected by your smart glasses] is controlled by contract," Goldman says. "So Meta would disclose its privacy policies in some disclosure to the consumer, and then those might be the rules that apply. There are some places where there may be limits on the ability of Meta to access that data," Goldman says.
"But I live in Ohio," you might be saying. First, sorry about that. Secondly, we have your back anyway! Big tech companies have largely adopted California's privacy laws as their baseline for data collection. So while the amount of data being collected from your glasses isn't ideal, at least you can claw some of it back.
Exciting new frontiers in privacy invasion
Check out this video of a recent concert from O.G. trip hop band Massive Attack:
According to Hoppe, the laws in place just weren’t written with smart glasses in mind. “The basic standard, that comes from common law times, was that if you’re in a public place, you don’t have a reasonable expectation of privacy, but at that point in time—and up until the last two decades—being in a public place meant you could be observed, but that you would simply be a memory in a human mind somewhere. It wouldn't be recorded in video format that could immediately be published to the entire world.” Hoppe said.
Hoppe imagines one extreme: a “privacy maximalist” set of laws, where no one could be recorded without their consent, even in public. "That would make sense, right? But the challenge you then have is things like security cameras and other stationary devices that are simply recording everything. Is that really a privacy threat?" Hoppe says. "And if so, isn't it outweighed by the beneficial effects to society as as a whole, in terms of protection of crime prevention and protection of property and so forth?"
The social norms of smart glasses recording
If you’re living your life in a halfway ethical manner (and you’re not providing cultural commentary in concert form like Massive Attack) you probably aren’t keen to privately dox everyone on the bus, and social norms are probably more important to you than potential legal penalties. Maybe you won’t be hauled away in cuffs for recording people eating dinner on the outdoor patio of a restaurant, but you will be met with scorn from just about every diner—especially if you’re sticking a phone in their face. Smart glasses, being less obvious than iPhones, change the equation somewhat. The etiquette around their use is evolving, leaving us all in a gray area where what’s legal and what’s socially acceptable don’t always line up.
Smart glasses make recording less obtrusive and more natural-feeling, but they also make it easier to cross lines without realizing it. So it’s best to err on the side of courtesy: respect people in public, respect private spaces, and be cautious of what you’re recording in private/public spaces—taking pictures of your meal and friends is cool; taking pictures of strangers is not. Getting it wrong probably won’t end up with being thrown into jail, but being known as “that creep with the damn Meta glasses” might ultimately be a worse fate.
Hence then, the article about the complicated ethics and laws of smart glasses was published today ( ) and is available on Live Hacker ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( The Complicated Ethics (and Laws) of Smart Glasses )
Also on site :
- Another Weight Loss Surgery and a Wedding Bombshell: Spoilers From '1000-Lb Sisters' Season 8 Episode 2
- Trump-Iran latest: President threatens ‘very strong action’ if protesters are hanged after forced confessions
- High Potential Finally Explores Morgan And Ludo's Breakup, But EP Says There's More To The Story: 'It's Complicated'