A 2021 consent rule, and the wearable it was never written for

Brussels has a 2021 consent rule on the books. Now it is being asked to apply that rule to a face-worn camera that barely existed at scale when the rule was drafted. The mismatch is the story, not the refusal to ban.

The 2021 EDPB video-devices guidance was written for CCTV: stationary cameras, fixed angles, a clear operator behind them. Meta's Ray-Ban smart glasses sold more than seven million frames in 2025, by EUobserver's count. The hardware moved; the rule did not. A Commission spokesperson, Markus Lammert, told reporters on 2 September 2026 that the existing AI and data-protection framework still covers the category. Member-state regulators and digital-rights groups say the 2021 consent logic was never built to reach a camera a person wears on their face, with a tampering-prone LED indicator and a successor reportedly planned without any privacy light at all.

The mechanism repeats whenever a consent framework meets a new form factor at consumer scale: the regulator points at the old rule, the gap between rule and device widens, and the gap fills unevenly across member states while Brussels waits for the next incident. Who gains: hardware vendors selling under the existing framework. Who loses: anyone filmed without the specific, recognisable consent the rule was supposed to require.