Norway is preparing what could become the first major national clampdown on AI glasses, with its center-left government planning a temporary ban in selected public places including parks, beaches, schools and kindergartens.¹

The immediate concern is not the glasses’ novelty but their invisibility: cameras and microphones built into everyday eyewear can photograph, film, record conversations or stream footage without the people nearby realizing it. Digitalization Minister Torgeir Micaelsen said he was worried about technology that leaves people at risk of being recorded “without their knowledge.”¹

The government says a draft law will go to parliament soon, alongside an expert group charged with designing durable national rules. Micaelsen framed the temporary restrictions as breathing room: the pause, he said, would allow “a thorough assessment and … informed debate” before permanent regulation is settled.¹

Norway is not starting from zero. Schools in Oslo have already imposed their own bans, as has energy giant Equinor at its offices and offshore facilities. Officials also point to a wider international reckoning, with Australia considering limits in certain public spaces and courts in several countries restricting wearable technology.¹

Yet Oslo is deliberately stopping short of a blanket prohibition. The government says there may be legitimate uses where there is no danger of non-consensual filming. That places it at odds with neither the technology nor its most intrusive possibilities, but squarely between them.

The stakes are rising because Meta, Google and OpenAI see AI-enabled wearables as a possible new gateway to digital life—devices that could eventually displace the smartphone by letting users speak to an always-listening assistant. Norway’s answer is that public convenience cannot come at the price of people feeling watched in the places where they expect to move freely.¹