Optus is considering restricting smart glasses in its stores as cheap recording devices, including Kmart's $89 pair, spread across Australian retail. Brands need an in-store capture policy now, and should treat AI-assisted shoppers as a new kind of customer reading their shelves.
The Take: Optus is weighing whether to restrict smart glasses in its stores, and that is the first sign of a shift every Australian retailer needs a position on. Cheap recording glasses are now on shelves and on faces, and your shop floor has quietly become a room that can be filmed and fed to an AI. Decide your stance on capture and staff conduct before a viral clip or a privacy complaint decides it for you.
The setup: Optus is reviewing whether to limit smart glasses in its stores and offices, with its security lead saying a restriction is "absolutely a possibility". The pressure is coming from price. Kmart's homebrand recording glasses sell for $89 and sold out, while Woolworths, Kogan and JB Hi-Fi stock their own. Telstra sells the Meta Ray-Ban versions, so the same retailers are pushing and policing the category at once.
Price of Kmart's recording-capable smart glasses, which is how cheap covert capture in your store just became (SmartCompany)
The exposure: Regulators are moving faster than most brands. iTnews reports Optus is assessing disclosure rules on top of any recording light, the federal government has asked the Public Service Commission for advice on the devices and councils in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne's Yarra have already banned them from pools and playgrounds. Physical space is being rezoned for a device most retailers have not written a line of policy about.
The upside: This is not only a threat. The same glasses are the front end of AI-assisted shopping, where a customer in your aisle asks a model what to buy. A brand that treats every wearer as a privacy risk misses that the model is now a shopper in the store, reading your shelf, your signage and your reviews.
For Australian operators: Write your in-store recording policy now, so staff are not improvising when someone walks in filming. Brief floor teams on how to ask for disclosure calmly, the way Optus is considering. Assume some shoppers are already querying an AI about your products on the spot, and make your shelf, pricing and labelling clear enough to win that read. Watch the regulation, because a rule for government offices today is a rule for retail tomorrow.