OPINION: Why I see it as wise to ban Smart Glasses
Take the poll
Should smart glasses be banned?
Don’t ask me how the government is going to achieve it, and what it might create on the flipside with illegal trade (think chop chop tobacco), but I support saying see ya later to smart glasses here in Australia.
On the surface, I reckon I am the last person most people would expect to hear say ban smart glasses.
An investigative journalist and true crime content creator with a quest for capturing comment and vision for the first time as it happens and I don’t want access to a pair of sunnies which can record and store everything I turn my head to?
I am often in situations where what falls before my eyes, if captured, can land hundreds of thousands of views and plenty of online revenue. Being able to capture it every time is an advantage, surely?
It is an advantage. That is why I have a phone on me at all times… often two. It is why I am equipped with cameras and drones. It is why my notes written in a notebook still stand up in court of a true and accurate recording of an interview.
Smart glasses will definitely capture the interactions and events before the eyes of the wearer, but they do not have the ability to put context around what is recorded. A $300 pair of sporty camera fitted sunnies cannot replace years of journalism and experience navigating news events but will have you blend into the crowd as you record. They may capture clickbait, but they won’t deliver the story.
Smart glasses likely further challenge the professional journalist and media landscape. Headlines today around the passenger plane flyover of DHL Stadium in Cape Town for the rugby at the weekend already say “every angle covered”.... Wait for 50,000 smart glasses vids to emerge. It “cheapens” the content and stands to confuse the news consumer.
But worse for people like me - working journalists - it creates doubt in the community about their every move being filmed. When I approach a person with the thought of a story coming from the interaction, it is my obligation to identify myself as a journo. I must request permission to record our conversations - including if over the phone - and I make it obvious if I am taking a photograph with a camera or even a phone.
A challenge in any quest to rid the faces of the public of smart glasses, just like everyone else in the public space, I can take a picture or record video of anything in a public space…. And publish it. Without the consent of the subject.
That is where my problem with smart glasses really sits. Use of the material captured. We should already be aware that most of what we do in the public space is recorded… by CCTV or by any of the hundreds of phones in iPhone throwing range at any given time.
But smart glasses take it to the next level. I cannot accept that users of them are not being deceptive… or conspiring to be deceptive at the very least.
What they mean for court cases is a whole other discussion… both for capturing evidence to support cases and the invasion of privacy and lawsuits that already is taking place.
But back to how the government might actually enact a ban on smart glasses.
The Federal Government is leaving the door open to ban smart glasses as it considers new laws to protect Australians from the misuse of secret, wearable surveillance devices. It is considering an import ban on smart glasses.
But the horse may have already bolted, says Monash University professor of cyber security Nigel Phair who says he does not think a ban was feasible and he doesn’t know how society as a whole will tackle this.
But a raft of new privacy laws to protect Australians from the misuse of secret, wearable surveillance devices is being released, Attorney-General Michelle Rowland unveiling Labor’s second tranche of privacy reforms, which will also give Australians the power to demand that personal information is scrubbed from social media platforms and search engines.
An exposure draft and consultation paper on the proposed crackdown will tighten how artificial intelligence and connected devices can collect and use personal information.
What do you think? Should Smart Glasses be banned in Australia?