Newsom vetoes California bill that would have penalized secret recording with smart glasses

California Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed Senate Bill 1130 on Wednesday, Sept. 30, rejecting a first-in-the-nation proposal that would have penalized people for secretly recording others with smart glasses in private settings such as changing rooms and doctors' offices. The bill was written by state Sen. Eloise Gómez Reyes.

SB 1130 would also have required companies to add a recording indicator to smart glasses and other wearables from 2028 and banned the sale of technology designed to conceal recording lights or sounds. Violations would have carried prison time or fines of up to $1,500 for individuals and fines of up to $2,500 for companies. The bill passed the Legislature largely along party lines: every Senate Republican opposed it, and just one Assembly Republican voted for it.

Why Newsom said no

In a letter to lawmakers, Newsom wrote that the bill's definition of a wearable recording device was too broad and imprecise and could create confusion over which devices would fall under the law. He acknowledged "disturbing" cases of misuse, but said California law already bars recording people without consent in private settings, so the new protections would be redundant.

The industry group TechNet, whose members include executives from Meta, Google and Amazon, said the legislation would have been unfair to businesses and customers. "California already has extensive laws governing unlawful recording, and as currently written, SB 1130 is not the right approach to addressing these concerns," TechNet Executive Director Robert Boykin said in a statement.

Meta, which praised the veto, highlighted an initiative that gives its glasses to blinded veterans to help them read documents and identify objects. A spokesperson said the company is still in the early days of building the technology and remains committed to prioritizing privacy.

The market behind the fight

Meta's Ray-Ban smart glasses, first rolled out in 2021, have become a flashpoint: more than 7 million of the AI-powered devices were sold last year. The product has drawn growing scrutiny. An investigation by the Swedish outlet Svenska Dagbladet found that Meta subcontractors in Kenya could access private recordings to train the company's AI, and users filed an ongoing class-action lawsuit over the same allegations. This summer, a Polish developer released an app that tracks nearby smart glasses by their Bluetooth signal.

Justin Brookman, Consumer Reports' technology policy director, said stricter privacy rules for wearables matter because it is harder to tell when smart glasses are recording than a phone or a camera. Reyes said she was disappointed by the veto and intends to reintroduce the bill next year. "Technology will continue to advance, but our expectation of privacy in our most vulnerable and personal moments should not disappear with it," she said.

Sources: LAist (AP) · SFGATE