EU Data Protection Board Opens Review of Always-On Cameras in Smart Glasses Under GDPR Biometric Rules

The Politico report documents EDPB coordination with national authorities on always-on camera systems. This follows documented enforcement patterns including the 2023 Clearview AI €20M fine and ongoing Italian DPA action against facial recognition deployments. Manufacturers must now demonstrate lawful basis for continuous recording under Article 9 special category data provisions.

Meta shipped 1.5 million Ray-Ban Meta units by mid-2024 with cloud-upload defaults. Local processing remains limited to 30-second clips. No public transparency report details retention periods or third-party sharing. Hardware constraints force design trade-offs between always-on functionality and on-device inference requirements.

The regulatory shift extends beyond notices to mandate hardware-level controls such as physical shutters and granular consent flows. This pattern mirrors 2022-2024 smartphone camera API restrictions in Android and iOS. Early compliance will raise bill-of-materials costs and delay AR product roadmaps by 12-18 months.

EDPB draft guidelines expected Q2 2025 will likely require pre-market audits for any device exceeding 5% continuous recording duty cycle. Non-compliant units face market removal under the Digital Services Act.