Aussie here, I don’t think that this is a bad move at all. The meta glasses are at a price point that makes them rarely seen in the wild, however Kmart (yes it still exists here, but different owners) has recently had a sale of $20 “recording glasses” that can easily have their recording LED turned off and with a few modifications you wouldn’t even know they had a camera.
I can understand them doing this in government facilities, as some won’t even allow you to have your phone in certain spaces.
I do think with tigher guardrails (detection of environments, like if a set of meta glasses enter a restroom or what looks like a restroom it should disable recording entirely.) it could be allowed but we really don’t need to encourage kids that secret recordings are ok.
Does the author assume that the reader doesn’t know what Australia is? “Australia! You know; the place with kangaroos, shrimps on barbies, and toilets that flush the other way around!”
AI generated? More likely than you’d care to admit!
Confused me so much. For some reason I thought Kylie minogue was behind the push for this.
Australia saw smart glasses and said: what if Google Glass, but with better cameras and worse boundaries? A workplace ban is understandable where confidential data is everywhere. But calling it world leading feels premature: the real challenge is writing privacy rules that survive the next pair of glasses too, not just banning today’s model.
the real challenge is writing privacy rules that survive the next pair of glasses too, not just banning today’s model
This phrasing is one you seem to use quite a lot, and your website has some pretty prominent use of AI art. Are you using AI in your posts & comments?
Anyway, for me the real challenge is coming up with a way to protect privacy vis a vis these glasses without restricting genuine public-interest video recording (e.g. recording police or someone threatening you) and protecting photographers’ right to create their art. I’ll just copy/paste a comment I made a few days ago in a similar thread:
As a photographer I’m a firm believer in the right to take photos and videos in public, for both artistic and documentary purposes. There is no expectation of privacy when in a public place and so objections to all forms of video recording in public places feel like dramatic overreach. The nebulous idea of a general “right to privacy” when in a public space should not override the right of artists to create art, or of anyone to document events/behaviours taking place in public.
But covertly recording using glasses that have no indicator or an inadequate indicator* in private spaces like changing rooms, or publishing the recordings of a conversation that the other party did not know was being recorded, feels like an overreach in the other direction. Banning devices that covertly record video from spaces where it’s deemed inappropriate feels like a pretty good balance.
* From what I’ve heard, these Facebook glasses have an indicator that is quite easy to remove aftermarket, and even if you don’t remove it, in brightly lit areas it’s pretty hard to tell it’s on anyway.
Ban those and ban Google products.
Australia do like banning things
It’s easy to do when you live on a miserable island where everything is literally trying to kill them.
Considering how many people emigrate there, I don’t think it’s particularly miserable.
Ya I would emigrate there too if I lived in China or India.
I see TimTams mentioned and I gotta say how good they are. If you haven’t tried them, you need to. So good!
I find them overrated. It’s just sugary junk food.
They’re overpriced though. I recommend the hilariously-badly-named Aldi alternatives, Just Divine. They’re like 90% as good as the name brand, at literally half the price.
Don’t go the Woolies home brand ones though. Those are terrible.
Tim tams go on sale at half price every few weeks at colesworth, you should never pay full price for them.
100% agree the Woolies home brand ones are downright atrocious. Since I was diagnosed coeliac it’s been nice to see Arnott’s do a gluten free version but those are very pricey and probably only 80-90% as good as the originals. The rest of the Arnott’s GF range is pretty great though.
Nah. Still mass produced sugar trash. Are you funded by them?
An American investment firm bought Arnott’s and the quality of their products dropped significantly. They also went from $2 a pack to $8 in like 5 years while a pack went from 12 biscuits to 7 in the same sized package, and the chocolate is shit now.
Like everything, they used to be amazing, then rich Americans stepped in.
So classic capitalist enshittification. Wish I was surprised.
Like the world leading social media ban, how’s that working out for them?
I know how we solve this; no wireless communication at all; the glasses are dial up 56k only. And not that fancy V.92; I’m talking 56k flex.
and the dialup speaker needs to be near the ears. The screech lets you know it’s working! https://soundcloud.com/stephthegeek/dial-up-modem-01
