Norway weighs ban on camera-equipped smart glasses and public facial recognition

Norway targets camera-equipped wearables

Norway is considering a ban on smart glasses and other wearables with built-in cameras, according to TechCrunch, marking one of the first attempts by a national government to restrict the device category outright rather than simply police how the data it collects is handled.

The country's digital minister, Karianne Tung, told the AFP news agency that the government wants to regulate camera-enabled wearables such as those made by Meta and Snap. These devices combine cameras with an internet connection, and facial recognition may be added in the near future, a prospect that has alarmed civil liberties advocates who argue the gadgets let wearers intrude on other people's privacy. Some critics have taken to calling them "pervert glasses," a label TechCrunch notes has helped drive a notable consumer backlash.

The minister's reasoning

Tung framed the move as a response to where consumer hardware is heading, not just the products already on shelves. She described, in remarks reported via AFP, "a clear trend toward combining artificial intelligence with cameras and microphones built into glasses, headphones, hats and other objects we use in everyday life."

"We must prevent this equipment from being used to monitor other people in public places," Tung said. She indicated that the measures under consideration could go as far as banning the use of facial recognition to identify other people in public spaces.

The distinction matters: rather than targeting what happens to footage after it is captured, the Norwegian government is questioning whether certain kinds of capture should happen at all in shared spaces.

Expert group before any ban

No legislation has been finalised. Tung's immediate step, according to TechCrunch, is to assemble a panel of experts tasked with advising the government on how best to protect people's privacy rights. The report does not specify a timeline for the group's work or the scope of its mandate, so any ban remains a possibility under discussion rather than a settled policy.

Why it matters

Camera glasses have moved from novelty to mainstream product, with Meta in particular shipping AI-capable eyewear at scale and Snap iterating on its own line. Norway's intervention signals that regulators may treat the devices differently from smartphones: a phone camera is visible and occasional, while a glasses camera is worn on the face, pointed wherever the wearer looks, and increasingly paired with AI that can analyse what it sees.

For Meta and Snap, even a ban confined to a relatively small market would be an unwelcome precedent. Privacy rules drafted in one European country have a habit of travelling, and a Norwegian framework restricting public use of camera wearables or facial recognition could become a reference point for other governments weighing the same questions.

More broadly, the move highlights a shift in the regulatory conversation. To date, most privacy law has focused on how companies process and store data. Tung's comments suggest Norway is prepared to regulate the point of capture itself, in public places, before AI-powered wearables become as ubiquitous as the everyday objects she described. The expert group's recommendations, when they arrive, will be a first indication of how far that ambition stretches.