PARIS, Sept 18 (Reuters) - Paris prosecutors have opened a criminal probe into suspected sexual harassment involving smart glasses, while French data protection authorities have received complaints from businesses, as countries around the world grapple with the devices' social impact.
There are several smart glasses available, but U.S. tech giant Meta's glasses made in collaboration with EssilorLuxottica are the market leader, with a roughly 76% share globally.
Meta's AI-enabled glasses, which have
a small embedded camera allowing the wearer to record discreetly, have been a global hit, selling 7 million units last year. Essilor's latest sales figures point to "exponential growth" in 2026.
But their success has led to growing international scrutiny from prosecutors, regulators, rights groups and companies over issues including sexual harassment, corporate wrongdoing and illicit surveillance.
Some UK cinemas have banned smart glasses, and a German consumer advocacy group has filed a criminal complaint against Meta and other companies involved in selling the devices in Germany, citing privacy laws.
The Paris prosecutor's office told Reuters it had recently opened at least one criminal probe following sexual harassment complaints related to a social media trend of using smart glasses to film women on the street, without their consent, and posting the videos online. The prosecutors did not specify the brand of devices used.
It declined to give more details, but said its cybercrime unit tested the devices two weeks ago to gain a better understanding of the potential crimes that smart glasses could be used to commit.
A Meta spokesperson said the company had "built privacy into our AI glasses from the ground up," adding that "we will keep strengthening our protections as our glasses become even more capable." EssilorLuxottica declined to comment.
CNIL, France's data protection authority, said it had received under 10 complaints around smart glasses being used in the workplace. It did not disclose which brands. It also said it was being increasingly contacted by businesses wanting to know whether they could ban smart glasses at work.
Australia said on Thursday it is considering barring the use of camera-equipped smart glasses in government workplaces due to privacy and security concerns, in what it said could be the first ban of its kind.
Smart glasses pose "real challenges" in terms of informing people that they are being filmed and getting consent when needed, said CNIL's head of economic affairs Nacera Bekhat.
AI-enabled wearable devices are regulated by the European Union's AI Act and the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, which set rules on how people's personal data can be used.
Though French law provides privacy protections - including penalties of up to a year in prison or a €45,000 ($51,700) fine - for recording the image of a person in a private place without their consent, enforcement can be difficult, particularly when content is quickly disseminated online, CNIL and other legal sources said.
A small light in the devices' frames indicates that filming is taking place, but rights groups said that shifts the responsibility of avoiding being filmed onto the individual.
"Seeing a light come on doesn't mean that you consent to being filmed, nor to have your image distributed to thousands of people afterwards," said Ines Legendre, legal expert at internet safety organisation e-Enfance.
Women are the primary target of abuse done using smart glasses, rights groups say.
Ines Girard, who runs projects relating to technology-facilitated gender-based violence at feminist organisation Hubertine Auclert, said the tech industry should do more to prevent abuse.
"We can't respond to a surveillance technology by telling the people being surveilled that they should be more vigilant," she said.
"This places an additional burden on these individuals, particularly women, gender minorities and people already exposed to violence, online abuse and scrutiny in public spaces."
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(Reporting by Elizabeth Howcroft and Juliette Jabkhiro; Editing by Gabriel Stargardter and Susan Fenton)
