China has issued the first industry code of conduct for smart glasses powered by artificial intelligence (AI), following public outrage over videos taken by users covertly filming strangers. The voluntary code calls on smart eyewear manufacturers to adopt a “minimum data collection” approach, provide clear indicators when cameras or microphones are active, and obtain explicit user consent before recording. The guidelines were released by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT), a research institute under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT). The move follows mounting public concern over recent incidents involving smart glasses made by Hangzhou-based tech company Rokid. Videos posted on Rokid’s online user forum showed unsuspecting members of the public being secretly filmed on subway trains, in parks, on beaches and in shopping malls. One widely shared clip showed a flight attendant greeting passengers and serving meals, apparently unaware that she was being recorded.
Rokid did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Earlier this month, the company removed some of the videos and blocked the accounts responsible for uploading them. It also pledged to redesign future products to stop users from covering the recording indicator light with so-called “indicator patches”, which it said some people had used to conceal recording activity. The controversy comes as smart glasses emerge as one of China’s fastest-growing consumer electronic categories. Annual shipments reached 2.46 million units in 2025, up 87.1% from a year earlier, according to a March report by market research firm IDC.
The unprecedented pace of adoption of smart eyewear – widely seen as the next generation of computing devices – had fueled the spread of cameras and audio-recording functions, intensifying concerns over privacy, according to Guo Gang, Deputy Manager of a research laboratory at CAICT, speaking at the launch of the guidelines. The code also urges companies to make AI algorithms more transparent and explainable, prioritize on-device data processing over cloud computing where possible, and establish mechanisms to detect and patch software vulnerabilities.
Privacy concerns surrounding AI glasses are not confined to China. A recent investigation by Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet found that contractors working for Facebook parent Meta reviewed sensitive and intimate footage captured by users of its Ray-Ban smart glasses to help train the company’s AI systems. The findings reignited debate over transparency, user consent and the way wearable AI devices handle personal data, the South China Morning Post reports.
