A new law introduced in Pennsylvania would require manufacturers and retailers to include an indicator light on all new smart glasses or other wearable recording devices built or sold in the state. It would also make it illegal to turn off the indicator after the wearable is sold (although you might want to revisit ways to know if you’re being recorded by smart glasses, regardless).
House Bill 2603 was introduced in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, the lower house of the Pennsylvania state legislature (the General Assembly), on June 5 by Representative Joe Ciresi. In a co-sponsorship note, Ciresi clarifies that smart glasses are the primary target. However, the specific language of the bill is much broader and includes any portable device capable of recording or transmitting data.
Smart glasses “have the potential to change the way we work and communicate with each other,” Ciresi says in the note, and can also be “abused by bad actors.” He goes on to say that it’s up to lawmakers to ensure that devices like smart glasses don’t allow users to violate existing privacy and security guidelines (the bill is an amendment to existing wiretapping and electronic surveillance laws), although the goal is not to unduly burden tech companies.
What the bill does
The goal of the bill, as Ciresi’s co-sponsorship memo makes clear, is to ensure that smart glasses manufactured in PA include a visual indicator that indicates when they are actively recording. The text of the bill specifies that the indicator can be either a “light or device,” as long as it is active and visible while a recording is being captured.
Importantly, the bill does not specify that this requirement applies only to smart glasses. It broadly defines wearable devices that would be affected as any “device or device designed to be worn or attached to the body and that has the ability to intercept and make sound or video recordings or transmit data received by the device to another device, the Internet, or any other cloud-based service.” Manufacturers and retailers will have to inform consumers of the law in writing, attached to the mobile phone.
The bill also specifies that users must have such a visual indicator active every time they record. It also includes language that prohibits users of such devices from recording another person without their explicit permission “in any area where the other person has a reasonable expectation of privacy.”
Exceptions and Penalties
Although the law prohibits individual users from using a portable recording device without a visual indicator, in the “Exceptions and Sanctions” section only retailers and manufacturers are mentioned. If a retailer is caught in violation, they will first receive a written warning, while a second offense will result in a fine of up to $500 and a third up to $1,000.
For manufacturers, the penalties are heavier. There is no written warning and the first offense carries a penalty of $500 for each unit completed. This amounts to between $750 and $1,000 per unit for a second offense within a 12-month period, and between $1,000 and $1,500 per unit for a third. The law makes an exception for law enforcement who are conducting a criminal investigation, as well as for personnel of corrections and correctional facilities, in the broader sense of “for security purposes.”
The recording functionality of smart glasses has long been a source of controversy for manufacturers like Meta and Google (which is returning to the smart glasses market despite the cancellation of Glass). Meta has been criticized for suggesting it could integrate facial recognition software directly into its Meta Ray-bans. Many women have also reported smart glasses being used to record them in public without their consent.
