Kmart’s $89 camera glasses removed from sale online amid privacy backlash

Kmart has removed its $89 camera glasses from sale online, two months after the cut-price devices sparked a national privacy backlash and calls for the federal government to step in.

The Anko smart glasses, which shoot video and take photos through a camera built into the frame, no longer appear on Kmart’s website. The retailer still sells a $39 pair of speaker glasses, which play music and take calls but have no camera.

Kmart was contacted for comment.

The development follows a campaign by activist Gina Martin, who petitioned Kmart group managing director Aleksandra Spaseska to remove the glasses from stores and online. GetUp, which hosted the petition, said more than 57,000 of its members had joined the push.

The glasses went on sale on July 28 and sold out in less than a week, undercutting Meta’s Ray-Ban models by hundreds of dollars. When this masthead reported on the backlash in August, Kmart described them as part of an “established and increasingly mainstream category” of wearable technology.

Privacy commissioner Carly Kind on Wednesday announced an investigation into Shenzhen Qingcheng Future Technology, the Chinese company whose HeyCyan app runs the Anko glasses, as well as cheap glasses sold on Big W Marketplace and Amazon.

Kind’s office began questioning Meta, Kmart, Google and Shenzhen Qingcheng on August 12, after attorney-general Michelle Rowland asked it to examine smart glasses because of the risk of women and children being filmed covertly. Shenzhen Qingcheng did not respond.

“In the absence of any response from Shenzhen Qingcheng to the OAIC’s preliminary inquiries, I have no assurance that it is protecting personal data of Australians as required by the Privacy Act,” Kind said.

Kind has written to retailers selling devices that use HeyCyan, urging them to “consider whether it is appropriate to continue making these devices available”.

The investigation gives Kind compulsory information-gathering powers, and she can seek civil penalties in the Federal Court if she finds serious or repeated interferences with privacy. Opening an investigation does not mean the commissioner has found the company broke the law. Shenzhen Qingcheng was contacted for comment.

Milica Stilinovic, a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Sydney’s Governing Immersive Tech project, said cheaper glasses often came with questionable data-retention practices and recording lights that were hard to see or missing altogether.

“State and federal governments must urgently answer the call to step up and protect Australians against non-consensual recording, data breaches, and basic notions of privacy,” Stilinovic said.

Her team’s research, released in August, found that in Instagram videos where women appeared not to know they were being filmed, about 60 per cent of the interactions could be classed as potential harassment.

The more expensive glasses remain on sale. Meta has sold more than 7 million pairs of its glasses, and Google and Apple are both preparing rivals.

Ferris said Meta was still selling millions of pairs, and that Australia’s privacy laws “weren’t written for a world with hidden cameras on people’s faces”. Meta has said every pair carries a white light that flashes during recording and cannot be switched off without disabling the camera.

Local councils have already acted. Brisbane City Council has banned non-consensual filming with camera devices, including smart glasses, at its 21 public pools, and Yarra, the City of Sydney and Canterbury-Bankstown have brought in similar rules at pools and leisure centres. Finance Minister Katy Gallagher has asked the Australian Public Service Commission whether the glasses should be banned in public service workplaces.

The federal government is not planning an outright ban. Consultation on its draft Privacy Act reforms closed in mid-September, and legislation is expected before the end of the year. The Greens want a 12-month import ban on camera-enabled wearables, with an exemption for disability aids.

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