Following in the footsteps of Snap’s Spectacles and Amazon’s Echo Frames, Facebook’s newly announced Ray-Ban Stories smart glasses are the latest effort to transition digital communications from handheld devices to wearable displays.
As Ellysse Dick writes in Morning Consult, some people may find these new devices “creepy” at first, because they constantly gather and process information about both users and bystanders. If history is any indication, reactionary calls for legal restraints will soon follow—but demands for new regulations targeted at immersive technologies are premature. Instead, technology-neutral federal privacy legislation can address most of the concerns about these wearable devices.
Wearables like smart glasses will continue to advance and offer new benefits to consumers. Policymakers should not stand in the way of these developments. Instead, they should ensure the necessary safeguards are in place for current and future iterations of immersive technologies.
