Question of the Day

The integration of facial recognition technology into smart glasses elevates the risk of abuse compared to phones due to several factors:

1. **Invisibility and Pervasiveness**: Smart glasses enable more discreet and pervasive capturing of biometric data because they are worn on the face and incorporate passive recording capabilities without the need to actively engage with the device, as is necessary with phones. This can lead to non-consensual data capture [2].

2. **Asymmetric Awareness**: There is a distinct lack of awareness among bystanders about when they are being recorded by smart glasses, unlike with phones which require more overt actions to record or capture images [2].

3. **Potential for Continuous Surveillance**: The always-on nature of wearable devices, combined with facial recognition, creates a situation where individuals can be tracked, identified, and profiled continuously and without their consent, which significantly increases the risk of stalking and harassment [4], [3].

4. **Easier to Gather Personal Data**: Unlike with phones, where taking a picture or video often involves visible action, smart glasses can capture data more stealthily and continuously, making it easier for users to gather extensive amounts of personal data on bystanders without their knowledge or consent [1], [5].

Overall, the ubiquity and subtlety of smart glasses make them particularly problematic for privacy and safety concerns compared to smartphones, where the actions of recording or photographing are more apparent and thus, more likely to be noticed and protested by those being recorded [2], [5].