By PYMNTS | October 14, 2026
Highlights
Norway’s government is considering a temporary ban on AI glasses in parks, beaches, schools, doctors’ offices and gyms with changing rooms, and plans to send a bill to parliament.
The European Data Protection Board issued its first guidance on smart glasses on Oct. 13, telling makers to give bystanders recording warnings they can’t miss and flagging hospitals, schools and workplaces as higher-risk settings.
Bans may be coming to workplaces in Australia, where the federal government is reviewing whether to bar recording-capable glasses from its offices. Western Australia has already banned them in all public schools.
Artificial intelligence glasses such as Ray-Ban Meta can film people around the wearer, often without those people knowing, and governments are only now deciding what to do about it. Norway is among the first to act at the national level. On Oct. 5, its Ministry of Digitalization and Public Governance proposed a temporary ban on AI glasses in selected public places such as parks, beaches, museums, shopping centers and events. The ban would also cover places children gather or where privacy matters most, including schools, kindergartens, playgrounds, doctors’ offices, swimming pools and gyms with changing rooms.
Torgeir Micaelsen, Norway’s minister of digitalization and public governance, said he was worried people could be filmed or recorded without knowing it, Fortune reported. The ban would cover use, not sales. Private use would stay legal. The government has not decided whether the rule applies only to glasses with cameras and microphones, to glasses with AI features or to all body-worn recording devices. The government plans to send a bill to the Storting, Norway’s parliament, as soon as possible.
Oslo moved ahead of Norway’s national government, banning AI glasses in schools effective Aug. 27, a decision publicly announced Sept. 10. Norway’s largest bank, DNB, also barred AI glasses from its offices in September, citing concerns over sensitive customer information and confidential conversations, E24 reported.
Courts in New York and England, Schools in Australia Ban AI Glasses
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Norway isn’t alone. From courtrooms in London to school gates in Perth, institutions are setting their own limits on AI glasses. New York’s Unified Court System banned smart glasses from all 1,240 of its courts starting July 20, covering prescription and non-prescription frames with cameras or microphones. Visitors hand the glasses to court officers before entering. His Majesty’s Courts & Tribunals Service, which runs the criminal, civil and family courts in England and Wales, confiscates Meta glasses at the door and returns them on exit, The Guardian reported in August. Smartphones still get in on a promise not to record. The glasses get no such carve-out.
Australia went for workplaces. Finance and Public Service Minister Katy Gallagher asked the Australian Public Service Commission in September for advice on whether recording-capable glasses should be barred from government workplaces, a step The Canberra Times reported would be a global first. Western Australia went further. Its Department of Education banned students, staff, parents and visitors from wearing, using or storing smart glasses at all public schools starting Oct. 12, the first day of the term, with exemptions for medical needs.
EU Regulators Push Design Rules as AI Glasses Sales Hit 7 Million
European regulators are writing product requirements rather than venue rules. The European Data Protection Board, which coordinates the EU’s national privacy regulators, adopted its first guidance on smart glasses on Oct. 13. The statement tells wearers, manufacturers and service providers how the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation applies to them, flags hospitals, schools and workplaces as higher-risk settings and calls for industry standards so bystanders can tell when the glasses are recording. The board also said devices should make recording obvious through bright LEDs, audio signals or phone notifications. “Individuals deserve clear warnings, not hidden surprises,” EDPB Chair Anu Talus said.
France moved earlier. Its data protection authority, the CNIL, launched an action plan on smart glasses on June 29 after surveying 2,128 French adults, and told wearers to switch the devices off wherever phones must be off.
The rules are arriving as the category scales. EssilorLuxottica, the Ray-Ban and Oakley owner that manufactures Meta’s glasses, sold more than 7 million AI glasses in 2025, and PYMNTS reported in January that the partners were weighing a jump in production capacity from 10 million to 20 million units by the end of the year.
Meta’s answer to the privacy pushback has come in hardware and software. The company pushed a mandatory update in July that disables the camera if the recording LED is tampered with or destroyed, and in September it introduced a $349 camera-free pair, Ray-Ban Meta Audio, which opened for preorders Oct. 13. Meta is also facing a proposed class action over an unreleased facial recognition feature for the glasses, PYMNTS reported in September.