Norway says ‘not so fast’
Norway, a country that basically won the EV adoption Olympics, is now drawing a hard line on a very different piece of tech: smart glasses with cameras. Regulators are worried people could be photographed in public without consent, which is a pretty fair party pooper of a concern.
Why investors should care
This isn’t just a quirky privacy story from the land of fjords. It’s a reminder that smart glasses may have the same problem a lot of futuristic gadgets do: the hardware can be cool, but the social rules around it are still a mess.
For the companies betting on the category:
- Meta has poured billions into smart glasses and keeps pushing them as the next consumer device.
- Apple is expected to launch its own pair next year, with photo and video features baked in.
- Snap has been in the smart-glasses game for years, even if the category hasn’t exactly become the next iPhone.
The awkward truth about wearable cameras
A device that can record everything around you is useful if you’re hiking, biking, or pretending to be in a sci-fi movie. It’s less charming when everyone else feels like they’re living inside your camera roll.
That’s the tension here: smart glasses may need more than better battery life and sleeker frames. They may need regulators to decide where the line is between helpful tech and creepy tech.
Big picture: If more countries follow Norway’s lead, smart glasses could face a slower, bumpier adoption curve — and that’s a headache for anyone banking on wearables becoming the next big consumer hit.