New research from the Governing Immersive Tech project, released in partnership with Teach Us Consent, finds that smart glasses are giving men a new way to secretly film women in everyday settings — at work, at the gym and at the beach — and share the footage online.
The team analysed 350 publicly available Instagram videos recorded with smart glasses and posted between 2023 and 2026. In a subset of covert point-of-view videos, around 60 per cent of interactions were classified as potential harassment. In about 43 per cent of videos, the women filmed were further exposed to abusive comments, some of which revealed their personal details.
The researchers describe this as “ambient capture”: recording that gives the people being filmed little or no signal, leaving them unable to consent or opt out. Because much of this content falls below the threshold of existing platform rules and privacy and harassment laws, it is rarely removed or acted on.
Chanel Contos, CEO and founder of Teach Us Consent, joined the researchers in calling for urgent privacy protections, noting that smart glasses are already causing harm and are available in Australia for under $100.
Read the University of Sydney’s story on the research:
On Nine News
Nine News covered growing calls for legislation against smart glasses misuse, referencing the research by Dr Milica Stilinovic and Dr Ben Egliston.
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