Italy data protection authority asks ‘Facebook’ to clarify privacy implications of smart glasses ‘Ray-Ban Stories’

Italy’s administrative authority on personal data protection, Garante Privacy, on Friday asked its Irish counterpart, the Irish Data Protection Commission (Irish DPC), to solicit answers from Facebook to a series of questions on the privacy implications of its new smart glasses before the company markets them on the Italian market.

Facebook’s smart glasses, called Ray-Ban Stories, have been developed in partnership with Ray-Ban maker EssilorLuxottica. They allow users to listen to music, take calls, or capture photos and short videos, which can then be shared across services such as Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, Twitter, TikTok, Snapchat, etc.

Since Facebook’s EU headquarters are in Ireland, the Irish DPC is the lead regulator for the social media company as per the “one-stop-shop mechanism” established under Article 56 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Garante has been communicating with Irish DPC in recent days and intends to evaluate the product’s compliance with privacy regulations. Particularly, it has asked to know the legal basis under which Facebook processes personal data, the safety measures adopted to protect people occasionally filmed (particularly minors), systems adopted to anonymize the data collected, and the features of the voice assistant connected to the devices.

Facebook has provided a broad privacy policy on its website, according to which the company will not access users’ media without your consent, and will not use the content of photos and videos captured and stored with the smart glasses for personalized ads. While sharing certain information will be mandatorily required for the functioning of the devices, users can choose to share additional information like the number of images captured, time spent taking videos, or the average length of videos, etc. An LED light will let others in the surroundings know when the users are filming.

Facebook’s representative has stated that they will engage with the Irish DPC to share details on the privacy design of the product and will answer questions from Garante through the Irish DPC.