Opinion David SwanTechnology Editor September 2, 2026 — 5:11 am September 2, 2026 — 5:11 am Save You have reached the maximum number of items saved. Remove items from the saved list to add new ones. AAA The best thing I’ve ever captured with smart glasses was my almost two-year-old son discovering that soccer is much more fun when you’re falling on top of him. I was wearing Meta’s Oakley Vanguards, which I borrowed from the company and typically use for long runs and half-marathon training. But they are also great for precious moments with your kids. The author is wearing his smart glasses.David Swan My hands were full—that’s what happens when you have a small child—and I said, “Hey, Meta, make a video,” and I got a clip that wouldn’t be on any phone. The moment you take out your phone to start recording something is almost always the moment it stops. A few years earlier, with an old pair of Ray-Ban Metas, I got images that I still remember: rolling a T-shirt around the oval with my wife, jogging with a friend, splashing on the beach. These videos look like you are there rather than watching someone film them. That’s all I like about these glasses. They are fun and very helpful. While I run, they play podcasts through bone conduction speakers, tell me how fast I’m walking, read my WhatsApp messages, and let me take pictures without breaking stride. They look like regular Oakleys, but with a built-in camera, microphone and artificial intelligence. The only thing that really gave me pause was the price. Now I’m worried about something else. For the past two weeks I’ve been writing stories about people using these things to film strangers without their consent. Researchers from the University of Sydney looked at 350 videos and found that about 60 percent of hidden videos contained potential harassment. Critics now call this category “pervert glasses,” and Digital Rights Watch has a better term: “technical offenders.” This means my running glasses have become uncomfortable for people who see me approaching. Is he recording me? I have no way to respond, which doesn’t sound like something a creep would say. A change in attitude led me to stop wearing them in public, given the strange looks and occasional awkward questions about whether I was recording. Google Glass owners have been nicknamed “glass holes.” We’ve been here before. Google’s first attempt, Google Glass, died a decade ago because its wearers were routinely bullied in bars and called “glass holes.” We weren’t ready. Melbourne used to see the same movie with dockless bike sharing and electric scooters, both of which worked well technically and both ended up in Yarra. The technology was defeated by a few bad guys who made the worst use of it. Smart glasses are well-intentioned and technically ready. Socially, they are quickly destroyed by their worst users. There is a second problem: who holds the reins of power. Meta has spent 20 years demonstrating that it will collect everything it can until someone stops it. This may sound like an unfair caricature, but it’s also the reputation the company has earned, and reputation is everything when you’re asking strangers to trust a camera on your face. Meta’s answer, received over the weekend from chief technology officer Andrew Bosworth, is that the capture light cannot be turned off, and closing it stops the camera from working. And it’s true: my Oakleys glow bright white when they’re recording something. The $89 Kmart pair that sold out last month makes no such promises, and I’m not sure a discounted private-label unit is the gold standard for anything. It is worth noting that Australia does not have a general right to privacy in public places. Shooting on the beach or on an oval is fair game. These are those in-between places—the gym, the coffee shop, the locker room hallway at Kmart—where the law says you can take pictures, but every social instinct says absolutely not, and with good reason. So here’s my opinion as someone who likes glasses and wants to continue wearing them. Let’s take a break. Not forever and not with an import ban, which the Prosecutor General has already ruled out. Enough time to work out the rules. We’re not ready for smart glasses, but maybe we can. At a minimum, registration indicators should be mandatory, standardized across all brands sold here, and tamper-proof. Greens Senator David Shoebridge is right that nothing currently requires light, sound or any external signs. Meta’s Oakley Vanguard glasses.Bloomberg Some other ideas worth considering: a specific offense for covert filming using wearable cameras, so that victims are no longer dependent on a breach of privacy that causes them serious harm. Product standards are built into the device, including bystander blur enabled by default. And a commitment from manufacturers to take action when misuse occurs, rather than just selling equipment and shrugging their shoulders. These things will also be expensive because there are people for whom these glasses are not a toy. The eSafety Commissioner notes that they can read text aloud for blind users and caption live speech for deaf people hands-free. The answer is not to simply ban glasses. The goal is to create better rules to stop the bad guys. Let’s do this right so I can stop the awkward looks and go back to being the guy who filmed his son falling on the football. The Market Recap newsletter provides an overview of the day’s trading. Receive every weekday afternoon. Save You have reached the maximum number of items saved. Remove items from the saved list to add new ones. David Swan is technology editor of The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald. He was previously technical editor of an Australian newspaper.Connect via X or e-mail. From our partners Post navigation Win a £500 LEGO eGift Card with Brick Search. ФБР расследует продажу более 153 миллионов водительских прав – Кребс о безопасности