GS III: Science & Technology, Cybersecurity and Data Protection
Context: The rise of AI-enabled smart glasses with cameras and microphones creates new privacy and surveillance risks that existing laws may not adequately address.
About the Technology
- Smart glasses are wearable devices designed to resemble ordinary spectacles, equipped with cameras, microphones, and speakers.
- Pricing: Priced at around ₹25,000 in India, they enable users to make calls, listen to music and send messages through voice commands.
- Design: Their compact design and 4–9-hour battery life enable prolonged, potentially covert recording of people and their surroundings.
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Security and Privacy Gaps
- Indication Bypass: Meta uses an LED light and camera shutter sound to indicate recording; however, users can block the LED with cheap ₹10 stickers, enabling covert recording.
- Loss of Consent: Bystanders have no control over whether their faces, conversations or activities are recorded.
- Surveillance Capitalism: A Swedish newspaper investigation found that Meta’s contracted workers reviewed sensitive user recordings, including footage captured inside toilets.
- Cybercrime Risks: NCRB (National Crime Records Bureau) data recorded 3,678 cybercrime cases against women, including 2,767 involving sexually explicit material. Covert recordings could increase such risks and may be further manipulated using AI.
- Mass Data Capture: With 4–9 hours of battery life, smart glasses can potentially record films, university lectures, clinic-patient information and confidential office material.
Indian Legal Gaps and Paradox
- DPDP Act: The Digital Personal Data Protection Act is technologically neutral but does not cover publicly available personal data. Thus, recording a person on a public road may fall outside its protection.
- Puttaswamy Judgment (2017): The Supreme Court recognised Right to Privacy as a fundamental right and established the principle of reasonable expectation of privacy, including expectations of privacy even in public spaces.
- The Paradox: The DPDP Act’s exclusion of publicly available data creates a potential gap between statutory data protection and the broader constitutional protection of privacy.
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Way Forward
- Avoid Blanket Bans: Banning smart glasses is impractical and could encourage black markets.
- Technology-Specific Regulation: Develop AI-aware laws and rules addressing wearable technologies and covert data capture.
- Privacy-by-Design: Mandate that manufacturers ensure devices stop recording if the recording indicator is blocked or disabled.
- Digital Accountability: Establish clear rules on data storage, access, processing, and retention, with accountability for manufacturers and data handlers.
25 Aug 2026
