In our recent article, AI in the workplace: the new frontier for legal privilege and employee privacy, we looked at the privacy and employment risks created by smart glasses in New Zealand workplaces.

Since then, the Privacy Commissioner has issued specific guidance about these devices.

The message for employers is clear: smart glasses are not necessarily inappropriate at work, and they may offer real operational, safety, and accessibility benefits. However, if an employer provides smart glasses or allows them to be used for work, it must carefully manage what information is collected, why it is collected, and what happens to it.

Why are smart glasses a privacy concern?

Smart glasses can look like ordinary glasses or sunglasses, but may contain cameras, microphones, speakers, and artificial intelligence tools. Depending on the device, they may be able to take photographs, record audio or video, livestream, or recognise and describe what the wearer sees.

This makes it easier for employees, clients, customers, and visitors to be recorded without realising it.

Although many smart glasses display a light while recording, the Privacy Commissioner does not consider that sufficient notice by itself. People should still be told when they are being recorded, rather than being expected to notice a small indicator light.

Can employers lawfully provide smart glasses?

Yes. There are legitimate situations in which an employer might provide smart glasses to an employee.

The issue is not simply whether the glasses are useful. The employer must also consider whether any collection of personal information is necessary for a lawful purpose connected with its business.

Potentially legitimate uses include:

Remote technical assistance
A field technician might use smart glasses to show a remote specialist what they can see while repairing machinery or diagnosing a fault. The specialist can then provide real-time guidance while the technician keeps both hands available.

The employer should configure and use the device so that it captures the equipment or fault, rather than unnecessarily recording people or the surrounding workplace.

Health and safety inspections
A health and safety adviser might use smart glasses to document a specific hazard, equipment defect, or site condition. This may be particularly useful on construction sites, farms, factories, or in other environments where carrying a phone or tablet is impractical or unsafe.

The employer should still consider whether video is necessary or whether a photograph of the identified hazard would be sufficient.

Training and competency development
An experienced employee could use smart glasses to record a task from their perspective for training purposes. For example, they might demonstrate:

• how to operate specialist machinery;
• how to complete a maintenance procedure;
• how to carry out a technical or laboratory process;
• safe lifting or handling techniques; or
• the correct response to an operational problem.

This should be a planned and controlled recording, rather than general or continuous filming. Anyone likely to be identifiable should be informed, and the recording should be reviewed before it is used more widely.

Warehouse and logistics support
Smart glasses could display picking instructions, scan stock, confirm product locations, or guide an employee through a warehouse while keeping their hands free.

This may present relatively limited privacy risk if the device records only the information required to complete the task. Greater caution would be needed if the system also tracked individual movements, work speed, breaks, or productivity.

Maintenance and quality assurance
Employees could use smart glasses to take photographs or short recordings showing the condition of equipment before and after maintenance. This might support fault reporting, quality assurance, and compliance records.

The purpose should remain documenting the equipment, rather than monitoring the employee performing the work.

Emergency response
A trained employee might use smart glasses during an emergency to transmit live information to an incident controller or specialist adviser. The technology could help identify a chemical label, assess damaged equipment, or obtain instructions while the employee keeps both hands available.

The safety purpose may provide a strong justification, but the employer should still restrict access, recording, and retention to what the emergency requires.

Accessibility support
Smart glasses may assist employees who are blind or have low vision by describing their surroundings, reading signs or documents aloud, or helping them move through unfamiliar spaces.

The Privacy Commissioner has expressly recognised that smart glasses can have legitimate accessibility benefits for people who are blind or have low vision.

Employers should therefore be cautious about imposing an absolute ban. A tailored arrangement may preserve the employee’s accessibility support while managing recording, confidentiality, and data-storage risks.

What legal requirements apply?

If an organisation provides smart glasses for employees to use in their work, the organisation must comply with the Privacy Act 2020.

The Privacy Commissioner has highlighted two particularly relevant requirements:

• personal information should be collected only where it is necessary for a lawful purpose connected with the organisation’s activities;
• the organisation should be transparent about the collection; and
• information must not be collected in a way that is unfair or unreasonably intrusive.

The Commissioner expects organisations to have policies in place to prevent inappropriate use.

Supplying the technology also means accepting responsibility for how it is used.

What if an employee brings their own smart glasses to work?

The position is different where an employee brings personal smart glasses into the workplace and uses them for personal purposes.

The Privacy Commissioner says the employee will generally be responsible for that use. However, the employer should still control the use of personal smart glasses through workplace policies about appropriate behaviour.

Employers should not take a hands-off approach. Personal smart glasses could capture:

• confidential conversations;
• disciplinary, performance, or investigation meetings;
• employee health information;
• client or customer details;
• computer screens and documents;
• commercially sensitive information; or
• colleagues who have not agreed to be recorded.

The Privacy Act contains an exception for information collected or used by an individual for personal or domestic purposes. However, that exception does not apply if the information is collected, used, or shared in a way that is “highly offensive”.

Relevant considerations include the method of recording, the sensitivity of the information, the vulnerability of the person being recorded, and any attempt to conceal the recording, such as disabling the warning light.

Employers should not rely on that threshold as their main protection. Clear workplace policies and expectations provide a more practical way to prevent inappropriate recording.

What should employers do now?

Employers do not necessarily need a separate smart glasses policy. They should, however, make sure their existing policies are broad enough to cover wearable recording and AI-enabled devices.

We recommend that employers:

1. Review existing policies. Check privacy, confidentiality, IT, acceptable-use, monitoring, and conduct policies to see whether they expressly cover smart glasses and other wearable devices.
2. Identify legitimate uses. If the business intends to provide smart glasses, record the specific problem they are intended to solve and why the proposed functions are necessary.
3. Assess the privacy impact. Consider what information the glasses collect, whether people may be identifiable, where the information is processed, who can access it, and how long it will be retained.
4. Identify sensitive areas. Consider prohibiting or restricting smart glasses in disciplinary and performance meetings, medical rooms, changing areas, client consultations, and other settings involving sensitive or confidential information.
5. Set recording and disclosure requirements. If the glasses are used for a genuine work purpose, tell affected people what is being collected, why it is needed, and what will happen to the information.
6. Address personal devices. Make clear that employees must not photograph, record, livestream, transcribe, or analyse workplace interactions using personal wearable devices without proper authority.
7. Consider accessibility requirements. Build in a process for considering reasonable, individual arrangements where an employee uses smart glasses as an accessibility aid.
8. Train managers. Managers should know how to respond if smart glasses appear in a sensitive meeting, including asking whether recording is taking place and pausing the meeting if necessary.

Key takeaway

Smart glasses can have genuine benefits in the workplace. The safest approach is not to prohibit the technology automatically, but to identify where it serves a legitimate purpose and place clear boundaries around its use.

Before supplying or permitting smart glasses, employers should be able to answer four questions:

• What work-related purpose do the glasses serve?
• What personal information might they collect?
• Is that collection genuinely necessary?
• What controls will prevent the information from being misused?

The Privacy Commissioner has indicated that his Office will continue monitoring wearable technology and considering whether New Zealand’s legal framework adequately protects against the potential harms.

Employers should not wait for a complaint or covert recording incident before addressing the issue.

How we can help

Copeland McAllister can review your existing privacy, IT, confidentiality, and conduct policies to ensure they adequately address smart glasses, wearable technology, workplace recording, and other forms of AI use.

We can also help you assess a proposed workplace use of smart glasses, prepare appropriate policy wording, or advise on concerns about recording in your workplace.

Please contact our team if you would like to discuss the appropriate approach for your organisation.

We are currently offering a fixed-fee AI policy – get in touch to find out more.

Need support? If you would like assistance with any employment matter relating to AI, please get in touch with our team. Email admin@cmalaw.co.nz or phone 03 211 0153.

Disclaimer: This update provides commentary on employment law, health and safety and immigration topics, it should not be used as a substitute for legal or professional advice for specific situations. Please seek legal advice from your lawyer for any questions specific to your workplace.