The Information Commission’s Office (ICO) has offered its initial thoughts on the data protection and privacy implications of smart glasses and other AI-enabled wearable devices.
Concerns continue to grow about the privacy implications of the newest generation of smart glasses. Over the summer, His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) joined a number of restaurants, theatres and pubs in introducing a ban on such devices at their locations. Meanwhile, Norway announced plans to introduce legislation imposing a temporary ban on AI-enabled smart glasses in some public places.
Addressing the growing adoption of such devices in the UK, the ICO’s Chief Executive warns that they will present novel and complex challenges, requiring regulators and industry to “think more fundamentally and creatively about what meaningful safety, transparency and control look like when personal data is captured in physical spaces”.
He discusses, for example, how individuals will know when they are being recorded (and therefore be able to avoid or object to the processing of their personal data) when, unlike CCTV cameras or other conventional surveillance systems, “devices are mobile, wearable, and less visible”. Similarly, questions arise as to how unnecessary collection of personal data in physical spaces can be avoided by default, and the extent to which the use of smart glasses would be deemed for personal or household activities such that data protection law does not apply.
To address these challenges, the ICO commits to working with the Government, other regulators, and industry to “support responsible innovation, challenge poor practice where we identify it, and expect organisations to build privacy into emerging technologies from the outset”. It points, for example, to a consultation next year on its AI and automated decision-making code.
However, it is also recognises that regulation can only go so far, explaining that “new social norms and expectations must emerge, potentially supported by new product standards or laws that address specific forms of misuse. We must rapidly explore and define the boundaries of what is acceptable as wearable technologies become part of everyday life”.
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