France probes smart glasses in sexual harassment and privacy cases

French authorities have intensified their legal and regulatory oversight of camera-equipped smart glasses amid growing concerns over covert recording, privacy violations, and digital harassment.

The Paris prosecutor's office has opened at least one criminal investigation following complaints of suspected sexual harassment.

The cases are tied to a viral social media trend where individuals use smart glasses to covertly film women on the street without their consent and publish the footage online.

To better understand how these wearable technologies can be exploited for illegal acts, the cybercrime division of the Paris prosecutor's office recently conducted technical tests on the devices.

France's data protection authority, the CNIL, reported receiving a small number of complaints regarding the use of smart glasses in professional environments.

The regulator is also facing an influx of inquiries from businesses seeking guidance on whether they can legally ban employees from wearing the devices at work.

As reported, the heightened scrutiny in France mirrors a broader international backlash against discreetly recording wearables.

Products like Meta’s AI-powered smart glasses (produced in partnership with EssilorLuxottica) have experienced exponential sales growth, capturing a dominant share of the global market.

While manufacturers maintain that privacy features such as small indicator lights are built into the hardware from the ground up, critics and privacy advocates argue that these safeguards are often insufficient.

Globally, governments and institutions are beginning to push back: other jurisdictions (such as Australia) are weighing bans on camera-equipped glasses in government workplaces, and consumer protection groups in countries like Germany have taken legal action against tech companies over privacy compliance.