Smart glasses expose a gap in Canadian privacy laws

Smart glasses with built-in cameras expose a legal blindspot in Canada's privacy framework, according to privacy lawyer David Fraser of McInnes Cooper.

The glasses—essentially smartphones embedded in eyewear—make it easier to film people discreetly than a handheld phone would. But Canadian privacy laws don't require consent to record someone in a public space, shopping mall, or street. "We do have laws about voyeurism, but those are generally for places like change rooms or bedrooms or bathrooms," Fraser said's Information Morning. "For a normal person, just for whatever personal reasons, wearing these glasses in a public place or shopping mall or store, there's generally no law that would prevent them from doing that, at least in Canada."

Private property owners can set conditions on entry—posting a "no photography" sign means someone activating smart glasses on the property becomes a trespasser, a civil matter. But the lack of criminal restriction for public recording stands.

Fraser cautioned against hasty legislation. Canada's voyeurism offence was added to the Criminal Code relatively recently after video cameras became small enough to hide covertly, leading to hundreds of convictions. "Sometimes new technology and particular kinds of covert technology can present problems that we as a society need to think about, but think about very carefully," he said. The question of where to draw legal lines around smart glasses remains unsettled.