Some Councils Want Smart Glasses Out of Change Rooms. Ten Municipalities Say Their Rules Already Cover It.
Some city councils are banning smart glasses in public change rooms to prevent covert recording. Ten Canadian municipalities contacted by CBC News take a different view: their existing rules are sufficient. That is the real question, and it isn't about the glasses. A ban on the device targets the hardware; a rule against covert recording targets the act. If the act is already covered, naming the glasses is either belt-and-braces enforcement — giving staff something to act on before footage exists — or a rule that needs rewriting every time a camera gets smaller. If the act isn't covered, those ten municipalities are wrong about their own rulebooks. A council that bans the glasses is also drawing a line in a particular place: not on what someone does with a recording, but on whether the device belongs in the room at all.
AI-generated discussion · Different perspectives
The device is the point. A rule against covert recording asks staff to catch something after it has already happened; a rule against the glasses lets them intervene at the door.
Ten municipalities say the conduct is already covered, and they may be right. Device bans also age badly — the rule is written around one product, and the next one doesn't announce itself.