Kmart’s $89 Camera Glasses Sell Out As Privacy Concerns Mount – Channelnews

Cut-price smart glasses trigger privacy investigation

Australia's privacy watchdog has been asked to examine issues with smart glasses as access to the technology grows...

‘Specs offenders’: $89 Kmart glasses spark privacy nightmare

Michelle Rowland has asked the privacy commissioner to prioritise smart glasses, citing the risks to women and children from covert recording.

Smart glasses are going mainstream. Do current privacy laws protect us from the risks?

There are now many more people walking the streets in Australia wearing glasses that can subtly film and record the world around them. That’s in large part thanks to Kmart, which recently introduced – and then rapidly sold out of – cheap “camera glasses”. These glasses are from Kmart’s in-house brand, Anko. They sell for only A$89 – quite the discount from similar products offered by Meta and Ray-Ban, which start at $337. The push to make camera…

Kmart’s $89 Camera Glasses Sell Out As Privacy Concerns Mount – channelnews

Kmart has sold out of its $89 Anko camera glasses across Australia as shoppers rush to try the budget smart eyewear – but the product has been met with strong backlash. The device is priced well below comparable products from Meta and Ray-Ban, which start at more than $330 and can cost upwards of $700 depending on the model. The black-framed glasses can capture eight-megapixel photos and record video in 1080p, while also supporting Bluetooth calls, music playback, touch controls and an AI assistant through the HeyCyan platform. Kmart’s website listed the Anko glasses as sold out online this week, with stock also unavailable across much of its store network. But the rapid uptake has also fuelled concerns about how the devices could be used. Privacy advocates have warned that cheaper and more accessible smart glasses could make it harder for people to know when they are being recorded. More than 15,000 people at the time of writing have signed a GetUp! petition calling on Kmart to pull the glasses from sale. Digital Rights Watch head of policy Tom Sulston described camera-equipped smart glasses as a “privacy nightmare”, arguing that Australian privacy laws have not kept pace with advances in wearable technology. Experts have also raised questions about how captured images, video and audio are stored, transferred and potentially used by software providers. Meta has faced similar scrutiny over its Ray-Ban smart glasses, despite including a front-facing LED designed to indicate when the camera is active. The company has introduced measures intended to prevent recording when the indicator light is covered or disabled.   It is unclear whether Kmart’s Anko glasses include comparable safeguards beyond a recording indicator light. The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner said it was monitoring the rollout of smart glasses and community concerns surrounding the technology. Kmart said camera glasses were part of an established and increasingly mainstream wearable technology category. “As with any device capable of recording images, we expect customers to use the product responsibly, respectfully and in accordance with applicable laws and community expectations around privacy,” a Kmart spokesperson said.

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