In an egregious example of the increased risk posed by camera wearables, a Boston police report from August 2026 alleges that a registered sex offender used smart sunglasses to film children in a public spray pool (go.nature.com/471zlwm).

The incident highlights how smart glasses can enable intrusive surveillance of people who have not given their knowledge or consent. The scale of the problem could grow as these devices integrate artificial intelligence and reach more consumers.

Smart glasses are becoming mass-market AI devices

Technology companies are rapidly turning smart glasses from niche gadgets into mass-market products. These sensor-equipped devices are marketed as convenience tools and platforms for AI integration, and are described as the fastest-growing wearables category.

More than 8 million smart glasses were reportedly expected to ship in 2025. By June 2026, sales of AI-equipped smart glasses had increased by more than 700% compared with the previous year. As someone who has spent a decade studying the potential harms associated with AI-powered biometric technologies, I urge policymakers to prepare for the major privacy crisis that is brewing.

Camera wearables can make covert recording easier

Even in the early stages of adoption, media reports about bystanders expressing concerns about “perverted glasses” illustrate why camera-equipped wearables pose a clear problem. Wearables can be more discreet than mobile-phone cameras and easier to carry than security cameras.

These devices mark a decisive shift in AI: instead of being confined to a screen, it is embedded in consumer products that can continuously capture the physical world. AI-enabled wearables such as glasses, headphones and pendants could expose millions of people to surveillance on an unprecedented scale.

Policymakers should create consent-aware spaces

Policymakers need to act now to update regulatory frameworks before ambient AI becomes widespread. This should include the creation of “consent-aware spaces” — including schools, hospitals, courtrooms and swimming pools — where covert recordings are prohibited by law and meaningful penalties are introduced to deter violations.

AI facial recognition can expose sensitive personal information

A 2024 project by students at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, predicted the current wave of wearable devices and demonstrated the risks of combining AI with smart glasses (go.nature.com/3tapz0y).

In the demonstration, smart glasses live-streamed video to social media while an AI-powered facial-recognition system analyzed the feed. The students said their aim was to show how existing tools can be combined with unobtrusive recording devices to reveal sensitive personal information.

A facial print — a digital map of a face created from an image — can be matched against a database of previously collected faces. When linked to a name in a database, other personal information, such as a home address, may also be exposed.