{"id":895810,"date":"2026-09-17T22:18:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T22:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/895810\/"},"modified":"2026-09-17T22:18:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T22:18:13","slug":"australia-considers-banning-the-use-of-smart-glasses-in-government-buildings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/895810\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia considers banning the use of smart glasses in government buildings"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australia is considering barring \u2060the use \u2060of 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.<\/p>\n

\"Australia<\/p>\n

The government \u200cwill separately convene a roundtable of the \u200ccountry’s \u200cbiggest employers, including Microsoft, Commonwealth Bank, Telstra and energy company \u2060AGL as it consults on a set of guidelines for AI in the workplace.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said it was important that Australia, which last year became \u200bthe first place in the world to ban social media for teens, put the “right protections \u2060in place as technology evolves”.<\/p>\n

“I am proud that Australia is setting the world standard for digital safety,” he said in a statement.<\/p>\n

While smart glasses have been lauded by some sections of the community such as the visually impaired, there have been growing concerns globally that the devices can be used to covertly record and \u200bphotograph people without their consent.<\/p>\n

Norway’s \u2060capital Oslo banned the glasses in schools \u2060last month, and the federal government is considering regulating their use.<\/p>\n

England and Wales \u200bhave prohibited the use of Meta smart glasses in \u200ccourts.<\/p>\n

Katy Gallagher, Australia’s \u2060minister for public service, said she had asked the public service commission for advice on whether smart glasses capable of recording should be \u200cprohibited in government workplaces.<\/p>\n

“Smart glasses can raise legitimate privacy and security concerns, particularly because of their ability to record and capture information, and we need clear and \u200bconsistent guidance for public servants,” she said.<\/p>\n

Companies selling smart glasses are also facing legal challenges from the private sector. A German advocacy group \u200chas filed a \u2060criminal complaint against Meta \u200band others involved in selling the Meta devices, citing privacy laws.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australia is considering barring \u2060the use \u2060of camera-equipped smart glasses in government workplaces due to privacy and security…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":895811,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-895810","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\/895810","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=895810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/895810\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/895811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=895810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=895810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=895810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}