Council Cracks Down on Smart Glasses in Public Facilities

A Melbourne council has voted to ban smart glasses from its pools, gyms, playgrounds, and childcare centres due to concerns about vulnerable members of the community being covertly filmed.

The City of Yarra voted to ban glasses with in-built cameras from its facilities, as well as lobby the federal government to update the Privacy Act to respond to the risks posed by new wearable technologies. There will be exceptions for users who are hearing impaired, have low vision or other disabilities who are aided by smart glasses.

Yarra councillor Sophie Wade forwarded the motion and said she was particularly worried about children, women and LGBTQI+ people being filmed without their knowledge. "These glasses are pretty cheap and lots of people could have them very soon," she told the meeting.

Smart glasses have been available for several years but privacy concerns have grown as cheaper versions arrived on the market for less than $100. The federal government recently signalled that local councils would be responsible for governing the wearable technology after saying it had no plans to ban imports of smart glasses.

Yarra councillor Andrew Davies said he would not normally support a motion that shifted more responsibility and cost onto local governments. "But Cr Wade's got a really good point and we need to do something," he said. "The fact that we need to protect children and women in particular from perverts — let's just say it — is really important."

Yarra mayor Stephen Jolly said he believed the municipality was only the second council in Australia to implement the ban, after Brisbane City Council last month announced a city-wide ban on smart glasses at its public pools. "We don't trust the tech bros to do it and the federal government, unfortunately, haven't brought in legislation on this matter," Cr Jolly said.

He said the ban would be enforced within days. "In the wrong hands, in those environments where there's public toilets, lots of kids hanging around, people swimming, they can be misused," Cr Jolly said. "Because of the lack of control over these glasses by the federal or state governments, councils have had to step up."

Federal Attorney General Michelle Rowland last week acknowledged community concerns about smart glasses and said she was not ruling out taking other steps to address the risks.

Greens want 12-month ban on wearable devices Yarra councillor Evangeline Aston voted against the motion. Cr Aston said she "absolutely" supported the need to protect the community but she did not want council to lobby the federal government to play its part. "The government has a strong track record of developing terrible legislation when it comes to technology and I simply think we are in a better position to design things for our own local context," she told the meeting.

She also added that she was not interested in using the council to advance federal Greens party policies.

The ban aims to stop people being filmed with smart glasses without their knowledge.

Cr Aston and Meca Ho were the only two Yarra councillors to vote against the motion. Cr Jolly said it was "ridiculous" that councils had to take carriage of the issue. "It's like saying, 'there's no national seatbelt law', so a council has to say that 'if you're driving around Yarra you've got to wear a seatbelt'," he said. "But maybe we can put the pressure on here by a large council like Brisbane and a smaller council like Yarra in Melbourne, maybe we can start a bit of a trend."