Norway's Digitalisation Minister Karianne Tung announced that the government will tighten regulation of smart glasses and could ban facial recognition in public spaces. However, Tung set no deadline for implementation and will first convene an expert group to advise the government on consumer protection.
The move comes as embedded cameras and microphones in everyday devices—from glasses to earbuds to caps—increasingly connect to artificial intelligence systems. Tung stated that Norway "must avoid this equipment being used to monitor other people in public spaces."
While Tung has asked private companies and public agencies to develop their own guidelines in the interim, Norway's Consumer Council has taken a more aggressive stance. Finn Lützow-Holm Myrstad, the council's head of digital policy, called for retailers to remove smart glasses from shelves until the legal situation becomes clear. He noted that a ban on facial recognition alone would not prevent covert filming, as users could still record strangers without consent.
Recent incidents have highlighted privacy concerns. In January, women in public were secretly filmed using Ray-Ban Meta glasses, with footage later posted on social media. In February, contractors hired to train Meta's artificial intelligence were reported to have reviewed recordings of people in private situations. The ACLU and 75 other organizations called on Meta to remove facial recognition from the glasses in April, and Meta subsequently patched a vulnerability in July after users discovered a way to disable the recording indicator light.
