Brisbane City Council bans secret filming with AI smart glasses in public pools

Brisbane City Council has banned the use of AI smart glasses to secretly film people in its public pools.

Today the council announced a blanket ban on the non-consensual use of all camera-enabled devices, including wearable technology, phones, and action cameras.

Under the new conditions of entry, people will still be able to bring smart glasses into the pool, but will not be able to film without permission.

The ban will apply to video recordings as well as photographs.

Under Queensland law it is legal to film people in public areas, even without their knowledge or consent.

However, the council's new rules will allow its lifeguards to eject pool visitors who film others without their permission.

An evolving problem

Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner said swimmers were increasingly worried about smart glasses being used to surreptitiously film them.

He said these concerns were mounting due to the rise of Anko smart glasses, which were much cheaper than Meta Ray-Bans.

"We want everyone that uses our pools to know that they're not secretly being recorded by other users of the pool, that their children are not being recorded," Cr Schrinner said.

The council says the ban will be rolled out "in the coming weeks" across all 21 of its public pools.

Tom Tulston, head of policy at Digital Rights Watch, welcomed the ban.

He said the state and federal governments should also be regulating the use of this smart technology.

"We all need to be able to go out in public without fear of being covertly recorded and having the images uploaded to the internet without our consent," Mr Tulston said.

"We look forward to seeing not just councils following Brisbane's lead, but also state and federal governments."

Queensland Family and Child Commission principal commissioner Luke Twyford said the ban would safeguard children.

"Child harm and abuse can be hard to recognise, and all organisations need to ensure the services and spaces they operate are safe for children and prevent exploitation," he said.

"I'm really glad to see Brisbane City Council considering its role in making Queensland a safe place and taking steps to reduce foreseeable risks."