Camera-equipped smart glasses cause unease among many people, according to a survey. 76 percent of respondents do not want to be filmed with the high-tech glasses, and 62 percent would not let a visitor wearing them into their home, the digital industry association Bitkom announced on Friday in Berlin. According to its survey, 82 percent consider it important that it is clearly recognisable when smart glasses are recording.
Smart glasses are offered by various manufacturers in cooperation with technology groups such as Meta and Google. Among other features, they are fitted with cameras and can connect to the internet. Users are also shown information via the lenses, and the devices are intended to serve as an interface to AI applications. Their use, however, is meeting with considerable data protection concerns.
According to the Bitkom survey, 43 percent would wear smart glasses themselves despite the widespread reservations. 15 percent have already done so on a trial basis or in everyday life. For 52 percent of respondents, by contrast, wearing such high-tech glasses is out of the question.
According to the association, current models "as a rule" have an LED that lights up in recording mode, making this recognisable to bystanders. Bitkom Managing Director Bernhard Rohleder called for "clear rules and technical solutions". The decisive factor, he said, is that glasses manufacturers take the protection of privacy into account as early as the product development stage. The association rejects "blanket bans".
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