As smart glasses grow in popularity (1), some states are beginning to crack down on their use, citing privacy concerns.<\/p>\n
Lawmakers in Pennsylvania have introduced a bill that would require any pair of smart glasses that is \u201cmanufactured, sold and used\u201d in the state to have some sort of visual indicator showing that video or audio are being captured.<\/p>\n
Must Read <\/p>\n
Many smart glasses already have that, most notably the Meta Ray-Ban line, but Pennsylvania Rep. Joe Ciresi, who introduced the bill, wants to ensure that companies aren\u2019t the ones deciding whether to continue including this feature.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy legislation would be put under our current wiretapping laws and have similar requirements in line with our current rules about recording other people,\u201d he said in a statement (2). \u201cThis bill does not seek to create overly burdensome restrictions that make using smart glasses a liability risk. Instead, it expands what we already have on the books to make sure new technology is not a tool to circumvent our privacy laws.\u201d<\/p>\n
Law would criminalize workarounds, teach users about privacy <\/p>\n
Beyond requiring the glasses to have some sort of indicator, the bill would require retailers to ensure consumers are aware of the state\u2019s recording laws.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny retailer that sells a wearable recording device in this Commonwealth must provide customers with a written notice informing the customer of requirements,\u201d it reads. \u201cThe notice shall be separate from other information provided to customers and shall be made clear and conspicuous for the customer.\u201d<\/p>\n
And wearers that are thinking about using online workarounds to turn off indicator lights and other indicators to covertly record would be prohibited from doing so. That would make various online services (3) offering to cheaply modify smart glasses so they do not light up while recording illegal as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cAn individual in this Commonwealth shall not use any technology or other means to permanently or temporarily disable or obstruct a visual indicator,\u201d the bill reads.<\/p>\n
The bill has been referred to the House Communications & Technology committee for discussion and exploration. Ciresi is chair of that committee.<\/p>\n
Read More: BlackRock warns buying and holding the S&P 500 isn\u2019t enough for retirement anymore \u2014 here’s why<\/a><\/p>\n \u2018Unprecedented\u2019 demand pushes back international launch <\/p>\n Smart glasses have been a fast-growing field for Meta, and competitors have taken note. Sales of the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, which were first released with great fanfare from CEO Mark Zuckerberg in late 2023, tripled (4) from 2024 to 2025, with more than seven million pairs sold, according to EssilorLuxottica, the parent company of Ray-Ban. They were a key contributor to the company\u2019s year-over-year sales increases. Meta and EssilorLuxottica have since expanded the partnership, announcing a line of Oakley Meta smart glasses.<\/p>\n Meta in January said it would push back the international launch of the glasses, due to \u201cunprecedented\u201d demand in the U.S. Those were initially supposed to go on sale overseas in early 2026.<\/p>\n According to Bloomberg, Meta and EssilorLuxottica have reportedly discussed (5) doubling production of the glasses to at least 20 million by the end of this year to meet growing demand. Samsung, meanwhile, has introduced (6) its own line of smart glasses, and Apple is reportedly considering a pair of its own, though it has not yet made any announcements. Those are expected, at this point, to come next year (7), according to reporting in CNET.<\/p>\n You May Also Like <\/p>\n Join 250,000+ readers and get Moneywise\u2019s best stories and exclusive interviews first \u2014 clear insights curated and delivered weekly. Subscribe now.<\/a><\/p>\n Article Sources <\/p>\n We rely only on vetted sources and credible third-party reporting. For details, see our ethics and guidelines<\/a>.<\/p>\n Counterpoint Research (1<\/a>); Pale GIS (2<\/a>); 404 Media (3<\/a>); CNBC (4<\/a>); Bloomberg (5<\/a>); Samsung News (6<\/a>); CNET (7<\/a>)<\/p>\n This article originally appeared on Moneywise.com<\/a> under the title: Proposed Pennsylvania law would require smart glasses like Meta Ray-Bans to light up while recording audio or video<\/a><\/p>\n This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As smart glasses grow in popularity (1), some states are beginning to crack down on their use, citing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":216470,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[12702,28,30,29,94679,33940,94680],"class_list":["post-216469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-glasses","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-ray-ban","tag-smart-glasses","tag-visual-indicator"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}