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Are smart glasses allowed in public in EU? (lemmy.world)

submitted 2 days ago by conspiracypentester@lemmy.world to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

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More and more, i see people wearing these 'smart' glasses as sunglasses which i find totally creepy and intrusive. Living in the EU, i am wondering how these glasses are even 'allowed' in public or may even be sold here. It becomes harder to avoid cause they become so hard to identify. How to deal with this? To what extend is this allowed? (cause apparently it is some way)

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[–] Libb@piefed.social 6 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (22 children)

Using a camera on public property in the EU is broadly very legal.

Less and less so; at least here in France and in Germany and also in the UK, which was quite surprising to me. In the EU, the GDRP being another nail in the coffin of the right of photographing on public space and photographing random people in that public space. Most of the cases I've heard of in the last few years ended up with the plaintiff winning against the photographer, even if the picture was not exploited professionally.

Smart glasses will raise a new flag and push all rules to the next level of paranoia (rightfully so, I'm afraid) and will then be used as an excuse to remove even more of our liberty to use public space (which is supposed to be ours).

Edit: clarifications.

[–] VoxAliorum@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I think you are mistaken. In Germany public photography is legal as long as it is not your intend to photograph/monitor individuals. They can totally be part of the image, just not the focus. Videos are also legal as long as it is not targeted or constant indiscriminate monitoring.

I don't think other EU countries have largely different laws given how common dashcams are.

[–] jnod4@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I was vlogging in Berlin and there were some turkish street scammers and I caught on camera when sb got pickpocketed and the officers told me that I'll be getting in trouble.

[–] VoxAliorum@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 day ago

Police officers? The main issue here is that those laws are about balance. Balance of your rights and the persons' you are filming. There are some general rules and a large grey area.

In general your vlogging isn't an issue. However, if you knowingly start recording a specific person e.g. a busker, or in your case a street scammer, things become more difficult - especially because you are vlogging. The expectation that you are going to upload the video makes it unlikely that you are just recording for evidence.

I am not a lawyer. I think the police promarily tried to de-escalate here.

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