{"id":895718,"date":"2026-09-17T20:34:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T20:34:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/895718\/"},"modified":"2026-09-17T20:34:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T20:34:11","slug":"albanese-government-considers-world-leading-ban-on-smart-glasses-in-public-offices-and-buildings-wearable-technology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/895718\/","title":{"rendered":"Albanese government considers \u2018world-leading\u2019 ban on smart glasses in public offices and buildings | Wearable technology"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Albanese government is considering a \u201cworld-leading\u201d ban on smart glasses in its offices and service centres as councils around Australia push the technology out of public spaces over privacy fears.<\/p>\n

The government has avoided a sweeping ban on the import of the camera-equipped technology and encouraged individual workplaces to set their own rules.<\/p>\n

The public service minister, Katy Gallagher, said on Thursday she had asked the Australian public service for advice on whether the glasses should be prohibited.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need clear and consistent guidance for public servants,\u201d Gallagher said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSmart glasses can raise legitimate privacy and security concerns, particularly because of their ability to record and capture information.\u201d<\/p>\n

Commonwealth-run workplaces range from bureaucrats\u2019 offices to Centrelink service centres and CSIRO laboratories.<\/p>\n

Schools and hospitals run by state governments would be left to set their own rules over the technology, which have grown increasingly popular but raised public outcry.<\/p>\n

A University of Sydney study of smart glasses-filmed videos posted on Instagram found 60% of a sample could be classified as potential harassment<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Albanese government said it was seeking to set a world-leading standard. So far, no national government has banned the glasses\u2019 use across their agencies.<\/p>\n

Courts in England and Wales<\/a> in the UK and New York state in<\/a> the US have banned the technology, while the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency reportedly classified them as body-worn cameras<\/a> and barred them from the \u201cfederal workspace\u201d.<\/p>\n

A local council in Sydney on Tuesday<\/a> became the latest to issue a targeted bans on the use of the technology. Canterbury-Bankstown\u2019s mayor, Bilal El-Hayek, decried what he called \u201cpervert glasses\u201d<\/a> as the council barred the wearable tech from public pools.<\/p>\n

In August, Brisbane city council became the first to ban the glasses from pools and Melbourne\u2019s Yarra city council has banned them from playgrounds, childcare centres and gyms.<\/p>\n

The City of Sydney and the Blacktown city councils have prohibited pool patrons from using smart glasses to record.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Channel Seven earlier this month, the federal attorney general, Michelle Rowland, praised councils\u2019 decisions<\/a> and said she would consult businesses on their approach.<\/p>\n

\u201cBusinesses know that good privacy is good business,\u201d Rowland said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut \u2026 we want to make sure we get the balance right and we don\u2019t unfairly discriminate against people who are using this technology to better participate in society.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vision Australia and some people living with disabilities have praised the technology as a support for people who are blind or have low vision. Rowland said the government was not pursuing a ban but had not \u201cruled anything out\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"CouldCould Meta\u2019s \u2018pervert glasses\u2019 be banned across the UK? – The Latest<\/p>\n

Gallagher said she wanted the Australian public service to set the national standard as a \u201cmodel employer\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cTechnology is changing rapidly and as a major employer the Commonwealth needs to make sure our workplace policies keep pace,\u201d Gallagher said.<\/p>\n

Pending restrictions on smart glasses would be the federal government\u2019s latest workplace technology reform after it issued guidance on the use of AI in the public service last week.<\/p>\n

The guidelines indicate employees would not need to be consulted on every new tool but should be consulted for major initiatives or changes to how they carry out work.<\/p>\n

Major businesses will contribute to new national guidelines on AI in workplaces, with Commonwealth Bank, Microsoft, AGL, Telstra, Kmart, Blackmores Group and Ramsay Health Care to attend a roundtable on Friday.<\/p>\n

Amanda Rishworth, the employment minister, said the government wanted to use the roundtable to take on the lessons of businesses already using AI.<\/p>\n

\u201cWorkers and businesses need the capability to adopt new technologies with confidence that appropriate safeguards are in place,\u201d Rishworth said.<\/p>\n

Additional reporting from Caitlin Cassidy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Albanese government is considering a \u201cworld-leading\u201d ban on smart glasses in its offices and service centres as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":895719,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-895718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/895718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=895718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/895718\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/895719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=895718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=895718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=895718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}