Smart Glasses Told to Stop Filming Strangers
BRITAIN’S PUBS: Wetherspoon has reminded customers that filming people without permission is not acceptable, including through camera-equipped smart glasses.
Wetherspoon Smart Glasses Policy: Turn Off the Cameras
The policy attracted attention in August, as wearable technology began turning ordinary spectacles into discreet recording equipment. The chain told The Register that the general code in its pubs, and most pubs, is that you can’t film customers or employees without their permission, and that its instinct was to say turn off the cameras.
Britain’s pub regulars have welcomed the development with immense relief.
For centuries, the unwritten agreement in a pub has been simple: what happens after the fifth pint remains a matter of conflicting witness testimony.
The Privacy Dilemma of Camera-Equipped Glasses
Smart glasses present an odd social dilemma.
A customer might look as though he is studying the darts board while actually recording a stranger discussing his divorce, his football club or his theory that the council deliberately moves potholes around at night.
In the old days, such conversations evaporated with the beer foam. Now they risk appearing online before the speaker has finished pronouncing “absolutely disgraceful”.
Wetherspoon’s position is practical rather than a blanket ban on wearing glasses. Customers should not film other customers or employees without permission. The chain has also objected to people playing loud videos in pubs.
This is an encouraging development for civilisation. One may finally enjoy a conversation without an adjoining table broadcasting a fifteen-second clip of a man reviewing a lawnmower at a volume normally reserved for airport emergencies.
The Pub Privacy Institute Survey
The Pub Privacy Institute surveyed 200 regulars. Ninety-seven per cent supported their right to tell a wildly embellished story without it becoming evidence in a workplace disciplinary meeting.
The remaining three per cent were too occupied finding their reading glasses to express an opinion.
The institute recommends a simple rule: nobody should become an unwilling supporting character in somebody else’s social media career.
CCTV Versus Covert Filming: Not the Same Bargain
There are legitimate reasons to record incidents, and pub operators already use regulated security cameras to protect customers and staff, subject to data protection law as the Information Commissioner’s Office oversees it. But public CCTV and covert personal filming are not the same social bargain.
A customer expects a pub to maintain safety. They do not expect the bloke asking whether the football is on to distribute their image to forty thousand strangers with a caption about regional drinking customs.
Wetherspoon is not alone. The Register notes that DEF CON, the organisers of UK Comic Cons and the members’ club Soho House have all moved against recording glasses, and that Meta faces a UK data protection probe into where its glasses’ footage ends up.
How Smart Glasses Create British Embarrassment on a New Scale
This creates opportunities for British embarrassment on a remarkable scale.
Consider the man who tells a colleague he was a promising professional footballer until a mysterious knee injury ended his career. He is prepared for disbelief.
He is not prepared for the glasses to livestream his subsequent attempt to climb onto a bar stool.
The football claim is disputed, but the landing is conclusively documented.
The burden should be on gadget owners to respect privacy, not on every customer to inspect the furniture for hidden cameras. Ask before recording. Switch devices off when requested.
If somebody says no, that is the end of the discussion, not the beginning of a constitutional symposium about freedom of expression and the right to film strangers eating chips.
Britain has survived technological revolutions from the printing press to the smartphone. It can survive wearable cameras, too, provided society retains one valuable tradition: the right to enjoy a mediocre evening without producing an archive of it.
Wetherspoon has therefore performed an unexpected public service. It has reminded the nation that a pub is a place to have a drink, not an audition for an unsolicited documentary.
The man at the next table may be boring, but he deserves to be boring in private.
Evidence From the Bar
Exhibit A: Notice Behind the Bar, Fine Print
No filming of customers or staff without permission. Includes phones, cameras, glasses and the bloke who was “only checking the football”. Loud videos also prohibited. The football is not on.
Exhibit B: One-Star Review From a Smart Glasses Owner
★☆☆☆☆ “Pub asked me to turn off my glasses. Had to look at my pint with my own eyes. Colours nothing like as good. Would not recommend reality.” — Marcus, Croydon
Exhibit C: Incident Log, Table Nine, Friday Night
21:10 — First pint.
21:45 — Third pint.
22:30 — Fifth pint.
22:31 — Man claims he was a professional footballer.
22:40 — Man attempts bar stool.
22:41 — Landing.
22:42 — Eleven witnesses, eleven accounts.
22:43 — No footage. Peace restored.
Exhibit D: Bar Tab, Table Nine
| Item | Price |
|---|---|
| House lager x 5 | £19.45 |
| Chips (shared with strangers) | £3.29 |
| Embarrassment (no charge, no footage) | £0.00 |
| Total | £22.74 |
Five Observations on Filming in Pubs
- A pub is the one place in Britain where you’re allowed to be an idiot with no consequences. It’s like a church for bad ideas. And now someone’s out there with a camera in his specs, filming the sermon.
- Glasses that record. Why? What are you hoping to see? A man with a pint telling you something he read on Facebook? You can get that for free, mate. Just stand there.
- The thing about smart glasses is nobody can tell whether you’re looking at them or filming them. You used to know when a bloke was staring at you. He had a pint and a grudge.
- My dad told the same story about his football career for thirty years and it got better every time. If somebody had filmed it, I’d have learned he was a goalkeeper for the Under-11s. Some things are better as a rumour.
- “We can’t stop you wearing the glasses, but turn the camera off.” That’s the most British ban ever. It’s a request with a sigh in it.
Further reading:The Register: Wetherspoons bars smart glasses from filming customers; The Register: Meta smart glasses face UK privacy probe; Information Commissioner’s Office.
Disclaimer: This article was written in a pub, unfilmed, and should be read in the same spirit. If you are recording it on your glasses, please stop and visit our list of news satire sites instead.
