Technology companies are betting that smart glasses, wearable assistants and other artificial-intelligence devices could become an important computing platform after the smartphone. The same devices are reviving long-running privacy concerns.
Reuters reported on September 22 that cameras, microphones, location data and continuous environmental sensing are at the centre of the debate.
Smart glasses can capture images, audio and contextual information while looking like ordinary eyewear. That can make it difficult for people nearby to know when they are being recorded or when data is being processed.
Meta is among the companies facing scrutiny over camera-equipped glasses. Reuters reported that a British pub operator has restricted some smart glasses because of concerns about covert recording, while Meta also faces a privacy lawsuit.
Other companies are developing competing products. Samsung plans to enter the smart-glasses market through partnerships with eyewear brands, while OpenAI has discussed future personal devices designed around artificial intelligence.
One approach is to process more data locally on the device instead of sending everything to remote servers. Local processing can reduce some privacy risks, but it does not remove questions about recording, consent, data retention and how systems identify people or places.
The challenge for the industry is therefore not only technical performance. Adoption may also depend on whether users and people around them trust how the devices collect, store and use information.