Newsom agrees smart glasses need privacy rules—just not the ones California lawmakers wrote

California Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill that would have required smart glasses to display prominent recording indicators. The bill, proposed by State Senator Eloise Gómez Reyes, aimed to alert people when wearable devices were capturing sound or video. If enacted, the law would have prohibited disabling recording indicators and made it a misdemeanor to record people without explicit consent in private places of business.

Meta and Snap, companies investing in smart glasses, face privacy concerns from consumers who may not have chosen to wear them. Newsom acknowledged the need for stronger protections against unnoticed recording but argued that the proposed rules would extend to other everyday technology like smartwatches and duplicate existing privacy protections.

Tech giants like Meta and Snap are actively promoting smart glasses, with Snap even collaborating with Robert Downey Jr. to develop new experiences for its augmented-reality glasses. Despite the veto, certain exemptions for assistive technology were maintained. Other states are also considering their own rules, such as Louisiana's law requiring smart-glasses users to notify people they are recording and Pennsylvania's bill mandating visible recording indicators. Meta did not respond to requests for comment on the veto.