Articles

Reporting and analysis on recording, recognition, consent, Bluetooth awareness and the shared-space questions raised by wearable technology.

  1. Engineering

    A Bluetooth Scan Gives You a Floor, Never a Count

    3 min read

    Address rotation, vendor payloads and connection state all work against detection. Any number a scanner reports is a minimum.

    Crowded arena audience viewed from behind, illustrating why a Bluetooth scan can provide a minimum but not an exact count of nearby devices.

  2. Workplace deployment

    The Bystander Who Cannot Leave the Room

    2 min read

    Enterprise rollouts put camera glasses on people who did not choose them, in front of people who cannot walk away.

    Warehouse workers beside a conveyor belt, with one wearing camera glasses, illustrating workplace deployment and bystander privacy.

  3. Firmware and capability

    The Glasses You Learned to Recognise Are Not the Ones in Front of You

    2 min read

    Capability arrives by update, so any social norm calibrated to what a model can do expires quietly.

    A person wearing dark-framed glasses is seen from behind across a conference table from a woman in a navy blazer holding a portfolio in a meeting room.

  4. Device design

    The Wearer Cannot See the Device Either

    2 min read

    The mainstream form factor has no display, which leaves the person wearing it with no reliable way to check what it is doing.

    A man wearing dark-framed glasses touches the side of his frames while speaking with a woman in a busy outdoor courtyard, with other people and modern buildings behind them.

  5. Data destination

    The Cloud Behind the Glasses Is a Dropdown

    2 min read

    When a wearer can switch which AI provider processes what the camera sees, the question of where an image goes has no stable answer.

    A pair of smart glasses sits beside a glowing optical device connected by cables to several dark server racks, illustrating different cloud processing destinations.

  6. Hardware safeguards

    The Only Control a Stranger Can Verify Is a Physical One

    2 min read

    Software promises cannot be checked from two metres away. A cover over a lens can.

    Person touching the side of smart glasses in a crowded indoor event, with other people nearby, illustrating a visible physical control.

  7. Policy

    A Right Nobody Is In a Position to Invoke

    2 min read

    Enforcement of privacy law depends on someone knowing they were recorded. Wearable capture is built so that they do not.

    A woman presents a pair of smart glasses on a tray to a man at an indoor reception desk.

  8. Compliance

    Nobody Files the Assessment for a Camera on a Face

    3 min read

    Large-scale monitoring of public areas already triggers a data protection impact assessment. The trigger points at a controller who does not exist here.

    A customer wearing camera-equipped smart glasses at a supermarket checkout while a wary cashier handles a yellow rubber duck, with toys and snacks on the conveyor belt.

  9. Canada

    Canadian Privacy Law Has No One to Regulate Here

    3 min read

    Federal private-sector law reaches organizations engaged in commercial activity. A person wearing camera glasses on a sidewalk is neither.

    A student wearing dark-framed glasses sits in a busy school cafeteria while a woman stands beside a tray-return rack, with other students and a Canadian flag visible in the background.

  10. Risk distribution

    The Average Bystander Does Not Exist

    2 min read

    Notice policy is being written for a median person who faces no particular consequence from being recorded. Almost nobody is that person.

    A bearded man wearing dark-framed glasses faces a microphone on a rainy London street, with pedestrians, a red bus, and the Palace of Westminster in the background.

  11. Law enforcement access

    The Footage Belongs to Someone Who Can Simply Hand It Over

    3 min read

    Doctrine limiting government access to data held by companies does not reach recordings held by the person who made them.

    A woman hands a pair of smart glasses to a uniformed officer at a doorway.

  12. Global governance

    The Norms for Public Space Are Being Set by Two Supply Chains

    3 min read

    Whatever a device does by default arrives in every country at once. Regulators show up after the convention has already formed.

    A runner on Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana promenade seen through a smart-glasses lens