The Australian federal government is considering barring camera-equipped smart glasses from government workplaces, in what it says could be the first ban of its kind, Minister for Public Service Katy Gallagher told the Public Service Commission to advise on prohibiting recording-capable devices given "legitimate privacy and security concerns." The government will separately convene a roundtable of large employers — including Microsoft, Commonwealth Bank, Telstra and AGL — to consult on AI-in-the-workplace guidelines. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese framed the move around Australia's standing as a digital-safety standard-setter, citing last year's world-first social media ban for teens. The Australian consideration follows Norway's Oslo banning the glasses in schools last month, England and Wales prohibiting Meta smart glasses in courts, and a German advocacy group filing a criminal complaint against Meta over the devices' privacy implications. For security practitioners the operational read is dual: a hardware-class control for sensitive sites, and an acknowledgment that wearables with recording and computer-vision capability are now a workplace-visible exfiltration and privacy surface rather than a novelty.

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