Meta’s smart glasses have already started facing restrictions in pubs, restaurants, theaters, and courtrooms across the UK. Now, one of New York City’s better-known nightclubs is bringing the same privacy fight to the US.
Basement has announced that smart glasses are not allowed inside the venue because of its existing no-photo and no-video policy (via Futurism). Anyone who brings them in, whether they are wearing the glasses or simply carrying them in a bag, will be asked to leave and could even be permanently banned.
People generally do not like being filmed by strangers. Being recorded without realizing it is even worse. Smart glasses make that possible without someone visibly holding up a phone, which is exactly why venues are beginning to treat them differently.
The UK has already shown where this could be heading
We have already seen similar restrictions spread across the UK. Restaurants run by Jeremy King have asked customers not to wear recording glasses at venues such as Simpsons in the Strand, Arlington, and The Park. Soho House, the private members’ club chain, says its existing filming restrictions also apply to smart glasses, while pub chain Wetherspoons does not allow customers to use them to record other patrons or employees without permission.
Courts across England and Wales have gone further by confiscating camera-equipped smart glasses at the entrance and returning them when people leave. Some UK cinemas are also considering restrictions because the glasses could be used to record movies without being as obvious as someone pointing a phone at the screen. Meta does include a visible recording light and safeguards designed to disable the camera if that indicator is covered or tampered with. Clearly, those protections are not enough for everyone.
Some people do not even want smart glasses nearby
The discomfort goes beyond businesses. An iPhone app called AntiZuck Smart Glasses Scanner recently climbed to No. 3 on the US paid App Store chart. The $2.99 app scans for Bluetooth signals associated with smart glasses and warns users when it believes one is nearby. It cannot tell whether somebody is actually recording. The fact that people are willing to pay simply to know that camera-equipped glasses might be around them says plenty about how uncomfortable the technology can make people feel.
For clubs, restaurants, theaters, and other businesses, that discomfort could eventually become a practical problem. If customers do not feel comfortable inside a venue because they think somebody could be recording them without their knowledge, some may simply stop going.
Basement is only one nightclub, so it would be premature to call this a widespread US trend just yet. But if more businesses decide that allowing smart glasses risks making customers uncomfortable, outright bans could become a lot more common across the country.