{"id":113550,"date":"2026-09-19T10:51:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-19T10:51:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/france-probes-misuse-of-smart-glasses-in-sexual-harassment-cases-the-express-tribune\/"},"modified":"2026-09-19T10:51:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-19T10:51:17","slug":"france-probes-misuse-of-smart-glasses-in-sexual-harassment-cases-the-express-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/france-probes-misuse-of-smart-glasses-in-sexual-harassment-cases-the-express-tribune\/","title":{"rendered":"France probes misuse of smart glasses in sexual harassment cases | The Express Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"

France’s CNIL received under 10 workplace complaints over smart glasses and growing queries on banning them<\/p>\n

The updated Meta smart glasses are seen during the Meta Connect event at the company’s headquarters in Menlo Park, California, US, September 27, 2023. REUTERS <\/p>\n

\n

Paris prosecutors have opened a criminal probe into suspected sexual harassment involving smart glasses, while French data protection authorities have received complaints from businesses, as countries around the world grapple with the devices’ social impact.<\/p>\n

There are several smart glasses available, but US \u200btech giant Meta’s glasses made in collaboration with Essilor Luxottica are the market leader<\/a>, with a roughly 76% share globally.<\/p>\n

Meta’s AI-enabled glasses, which \u200chave a small embedded camera allowing the wearer to record discreetly, have been a global hit, selling 7 million units last year. Essilor’s latest sales figures point to “exponential growth” in 2026.<\/p>\n

But their success has led to growing international scrutiny from prosecutors, regulators, rights groups and companies over issues including sexual harassment, corporate wrongdoing and illicit surveillance.<\/p>\n

Some UK cinemas \u200bhave banned smart glasses<\/a>, and a German consumer advocacy group has filed a criminal complaint<\/a> against Meta and other companies involved in selling the devices \u200bin Germany, citing privacy laws.<\/p>\n

The Paris prosecutor’s office told Reuters it had recently opened at least one criminal probe \u2060following sexual harassment complaints related to a social media trend of using smart glasses to film women on the street, without their consent, and posting \u200bthe videos online. The prosecutors did not specify the brand of devices used.<\/p>\n

Read More: <\/strong>German court rules Meta liable for fake ads on Instagram, Facebook<\/a><\/p>\n

It declined to give more details, but said its cybercrime unit tested the devices \u200btwo weeks ago to gain a better understanding of the potential crimes that smart glasses could be used to commit.<\/p>\n

A Meta spokesperson said the company had “built privacy into our AI glasses from the ground up,” adding that “we will keep strengthening our protections as our glasses become even more capable.” EssilorLuxottica declined to comment.<\/p>\n

CNIL, France’s data protection authority, said \u200bit had received under 10 complaints around smart glasses being used in the workplace. It did not disclose which brands. It also said it was \u200bbeing increasingly contacted by businesses wanting to know whether they could ban smart glasses at work.<\/p>\n

Australia said on Thursday it is considering barring<\/a> the use of camera-equipped smart glasses \u200cin government \u2060workplaces due to privacy and security concerns, in what it said could be the first ban of its kind.<\/p>\n

Smart glasses pose “real challenges” in terms of informing people that they are being filmed and getting consent when needed, said CNIL’s head of economic affairs Nacera Bekhat.<\/p>\n

AI-enabled wearable devices are regulated by the European Union’s AI Act and the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, which set rules on how people’s personal data can be used.<\/p>\n

Though French law provides \u200bprivacy protections – including penalties of up to \u200ba year in prison or \u2060a \u20ac45,000 ($51,700) fine – for recording the image of a person in a private place without their consent, enforcement can be difficult, particularly when content is quickly disseminated online, CNIL and other legal sources said.<\/p>\n

A small light in the devices’ frames \u200bindicates that filming is taking place, but rights groups said that shifts the responsibility of avoiding being filmed \u200bonto the individual.<\/p>\n

“Seeing \u2060a light come on doesn’t mean that you consent to being filmed, nor to have your image distributed to thousands of people afterwards,” said Ines Legendre, legal expert at internet safety organisation e-Enfance.<\/p>\n

Women are the primary target of abuse done using smart glasses, rights groups say.<\/p>\n

Ines Girard, who runs projects relating to technology-facilitated gender-based \u2060violence at \u200bfeminist organisation Hubertine Auclert, said the tech industry should do more to prevent abuse.<\/p>\n

“We can’t respond \u200bto a surveillance technology by telling the people being surveilled that they should be more vigilant,” she said.<\/p>\n

“This places an additional burden on these individuals, particularly women, gender minorities and people \u200balready exposed to violence, online abuse and scrutiny in public spaces.”<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

France’s CNIL received under 10 workplace complaints over smart glasses and growing queries on banning them The updated Meta smart glasses are seen during the Meta Connect event at the company’s headquarters in Menlo Park, California, US, September 27, 2023. REUTERS Paris prosecutors have opened a criminal probe into suspected sexual harassment involving smart glasses, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":113551,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.tribune.com.pk\/media\/images\/meta-glasses-r1789751974-0\/meta-glasses-r1789751974-0-640x480.webp","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-113550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t