{"id":292126,"date":"2026-07-10T09:23:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T09:23:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/292126\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T09:23:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T09:23:18","slug":"new-york-state-courts-ban-smart-glasses-to-prevent-secret-recordings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/292126\/","title":{"rendered":"New York State Courts Ban Smart Glasses to Prevent Secret Recordings"},"content":{"rendered":"

New York is banning smart glasses<\/a> in courts across the state, pointing to the threat of surreptitious video recordings<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Syracuse.com\u00a0reported<\/a>\u00a0on the ban after signs about the smart glass prohibition began appearing at a local courthouse last week.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The New York State Unified Court System confirmed the ban, citing a memo<\/a> from the system’s executive director, Justin Barry. The “Prohibition Against Smart Glasses in Court Facilities” goes into effect on Monday, July 20. “The reason for this prohibition is to ensure that individuals cannot surreptitiously record court proceedings in violation<\/a> of the New York State Civil Rights Law and applicable court rules,” Barry wrote.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“This prohibition applies to all individuals entering court facilities, including litigants, attorneys, witnesses, family members, UCS employees, and all other individuals who seek to enter a UCS facility for any reason,” he added. As a result, the ban covers<\/a> more than 1,240 courts across the state in 62 counties.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The ban also applies to smart glasses with prescription lenses or any eyewear or headwear “containing a camera, microphone, computer or other technology that permit the user to record video or audio.”<\/p>\n

Unless a judge authorizes it, electronic recording is usually prohibited in US courts over concerns<\/a> that it could intimidate and distract the jury and witnesses, undermining the integrity of the judicial process. Some state courts, including those in Wisconsin<\/a> and Pennsylvania<\/a>, have also prohibited smart glasses. But the New York ban appears to be the largest.<\/p>\n

The ban comes as smart glasses, particularly those from Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, are facing<\/a> backlash for being able to secretly record people without their consent, a potential privacy violation. In February, a California judge reportedly scolded<\/a> Meta’s own lawyers for wearing the smart glasses in court.\u00a0<\/p>\n

PCMag and Yahoo may earn commission from links in this article.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York is banning smart glasses in courts across the state, pointing to the threat of surreptitious video…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292127,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[111547,82403,111546,9,11,10,49,51,50,107302,110662,9057],"class_list":["post-292126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-court-facilities","tag-court-proceedings","tag-justin-barry","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news","tag-new-york-state-unified-court-system","tag-smart-glasses","tag-video-recordings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292126\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}