California Senator Eloise Gómez Reyes final week launched laws that may make it a criminal offense to secretly file folks utilizing wearable gadgets inside locations of enterprise, concentrating on a niche in current privateness regulation that has widened as merchandise like AI-enabled good glasses turn out to be extra commercially accessible.
The invoice, Senate Invoice 1130, was formally launched on February 17, 2026 and would add two new sections – Sections 632.8 and 632.9 – to California’s Penal Code. It could amend eight extra current sections. The laws establishes particular restrictions on wearable recording gadgets, outlined within the invoice textual content as “any system that may be worn on or hooked up to the physique that has the capability to make sound or video recordings or transmit knowledge obtained by the system to a different system or to the web.” That definition is broad sufficient to cowl not solely good glasses but in addition physique cameras, smartwatches with microphones, and different rising classes of client electronics.
“Californians have a constitutional proper to privateness, and our legal guidelines should evolve as shortly as know-how, to stop hurt,” in response to Senator Reyes. “Secretly recording somebody underneath the guise of prescription-style glasses – particularly when many individuals do not even know this know-how exists – has actual penalties. We’ve got an obligation as lawmakers to place a cease to it.”
The proposed regulation defines place of work narrowly as “any bodily workplace or retail institution by which members of the general public obtain items or companies from the enterprise.” That scope is notable: the laws doesn’t try to manage recording on public streets or in parks, focusing as an alternative on semi-private industrial environments the place people could share delicate private, monetary, or well being info with employees or different clients.
What the invoice requires
Underneath the proposed Part 632.8, an individual could not function a wearable recording system to seize sound or video of one other individual in any space inside a place of work the place that individual has an affordable expectation of privateness – until the system operator has specific consent from that individual. Crucially, the usual is specific consent, not implied or inferred consent. Merely getting into a store the place somebody is carrying recording glasses wouldn’t fulfill the requirement.
The invoice additionally prohibits disabling any indicator mild or different sign on a wearable recording system that reveals the system is capturing sound or video. Producers, distributors, and sellers face separate restrictions underneath proposed Part 632.9: the invoice would prohibit any individual or entity from manufacturing, promoting, delivering, holding, or providing on the market any know-how that allows an individual to disable such indicator lights. Buying, buying and selling for, or in any other case buying that disabling know-how would itself turn out to be a violation. So too would utilizing any know-how to completely or briefly suppress an indicator mild on a tool that may in any other case present it’s recording.
The penalty construction aligns with California’s current wiretapping and eavesdropping regulation. A primary-time violation underneath the brand new sections would carry a nice not exceeding $2,500 per violation, imprisonment in a county jail not exceeding one yr, imprisonment within the state jail underneath subdivision (h) of Part 1170, or each the nice and imprisonment. An individual beforehand convicted of any of the listed associated offenses – together with violations of current Sections 631, 632.5, 632.6, 632.7, and 636 – faces an enhanced nice of as much as $10,000 per violation, along with the identical imprisonment choices.
The invoice expressly states that no reimbursement to native companies or faculty districts is required underneath the California Structure as a result of the act creates new crimes throughout the that means of Part 17556 of the Authorities Code and Part 6 of Article XIII B of the California Structure.
The indicator mild downside
The legislative file accompanying SB 1130 factors to a particular technical vulnerability: many wearable gadgets embrace small indicator lights to sign when recording is going on, however these indicators could be refined, simply neglected, or probably disabled by software program or {hardware} modification. This creates documented dangers of covert surveillance in environments the place folks fairly anticipate some extent of privateness.
The priority is sensible. A buyer at a pharmacy counter, a affected person in a medical workplace ready room, or an worker in a retail again workplace has no dependable strategy to know whether or not a colleague or stranger carrying glasses is capturing audio and video. In contrast to a smartphone held as much as file, glasses-mounted cameras are designed to be unobtrusive. Their LED indicators are sometimes small, positioned on the body close to the temples, and might not be seen to somebody standing in entrance of the wearer.
The invoice addresses this by treating indicator mild tampering as a separate offense from the recording itself. Even when no recording takes place, disabling or buying know-how to disable the indicator mild would represent a violation. That preventive framing displays a broader regulatory philosophy: the hurt begins on the level of concealment, not solely on the level of recording.
Trade context: good glasses and promoting knowledge
The timing of SB 1130 coincides with a interval of accelerating industrial deployment of AI-enabled good glasses. Meta announced new AI features for its Ray-Ban Meta glasses in September 2024, including real-time language translation, reminiscence help, and visible question-answering capabilities. The glasses use an ultra-wide 12MP digicam system coupled with a five-microphone array. When Meta expanded the identical AI assistant options to France, Italy, Eire, and Spain in November 2024, the corporate cited LED indicator lights and hardware-level privateness controls as key compliance mechanisms underneath European knowledge safety regulation.
For advertising professionals, wearable gadgets able to capturing real-world visible knowledge carry important implications past private privateness. If good glasses attain mass client adoption, they might theoretically generate knowledge on physical-world advert consideration – which out of doors placements customers take a look at, for a way lengthy, and in what sequence. That prospect has drawn consideration from the digital promoting group, the place measurement and attribution stay persistent challenges. PPC Land previously examined how Ray-Ban Meta glasses could affect digital out-of-home advertising, noting that real-time visible knowledge from wearables worn constantly may show extra granular than any sign obtainable from smartphone interactions.
SB 1130 doesn’t handle these promoting use circumstances instantly. Its scope is felony regulation, not knowledge regulation. However the invoice’s definition of a wearable recording system – masking any system worn on the physique that may transmit knowledge to a different system or to the web – would embody AI good glasses utilized in industrial environments no matter their major supposed function.
California’s broader privateness trajectory
SB 1130 arrives as California’s privateness enforcement equipment has grown significantly extra lively. CCPA updates that took effect on January 1, 2026 expanded consent and disclosure necessities for companies dealing with client knowledge, with enforcement actions already leading to multi-million greenback settlements. The California Lawyer Normal’s workplace secured a $1.55 million settlement with Healthline Media in July 2025 – the biggest CCPA penalty to this point on the time – for failures together with sharing delicate health-related knowledge with advertisers with out sufficient consent.
The legislature has additionally moved to strengthen browser-level privateness controls. California’s AB 3048, handed in August 2024, required net browsers and cell working methods to incorporate built-in opt-out settings for knowledge sharing, efficient January 1, 2026. That invoice, like SB 1130, was premised on the view that current consent frameworks had not saved tempo with how know-how really collects info from people.
SB 1130 extends that logic to the bodily world. The place earlier laws addressed how private knowledge flows by digital methods, this invoice focuses on the second of bodily seize – the purpose at which a wearable system information a dialog or pictures in a enterprise setting. The 2 regulatory domains are more and more interconnected: knowledge captured by a wearable system in a retail retailer may, in precept, be transmitted, processed, and used for functions that fall throughout the scope of digital promoting regulation.
Legislative timeline and subsequent steps
Senator Reyes, who represents Senate District 29 within the San Bernardino space and serves as a senior member of the Democratic caucus, launched SB 1130 on February 17, 2026. The invoice requires a majority vote to go the California Senate and is topic to a fiscal committee evaluate. In response to the legislative press launch, the invoice shall be assigned to coverage committees for evaluation and listening to dates within the coming days. The invoice carries a fiscal word – it’s categorised as a state-mandated native program as a result of it creates new crimes – however the invoice textual content states that no reimbursement to native companies is required for that purpose underneath state constitutional provisions.
Whether or not SB 1130 advances by committee hearings will rely partly on whether or not the legislature views current consent frameworks underneath Sections 631 and 632 of the Penal Code as enough, or whether or not the physical-world specificity of wearable gadgets justifies new standalone provisions. The invoice’s sponsors argue the latter: indicator lights could be disabled, the gadgets should not conspicuous, and most members of the general public stay unaware that commercially obtainable glasses can file them in dialog.
Why it issues for entrepreneurs and advertisers
For the advertising and promoting group, the invoice alerts the path of journey in California’s privateness regime. Retail environments – shops, medical places of work, monetary companies branches – are additionally promoting environments. They’re locations the place client behaviour is noticed, loyalty applications function, and more and more, the place data-driven buyer interactions happen. The introduction of a consent normal for wearable recordings in these areas creates a brand new compliance variable for any enterprise deploying or allowing the usage of wearable know-how amongst employees or in customer-facing areas.
The provision chain provisions are significantly related for know-how producers and distributors working in California. Underneath proposed Part 632.9, merely promoting a software program replace or {hardware} package that disables a recording indicator would represent a felony offence, punishable by fines and potential imprisonment. That legal responsibility extends not solely to direct sellers however to anybody who manufactures, delivers, holds, or affords on the market such know-how within the state.
Timeline
- September 25, 2024 – Meta declares new AI options for Ray-Ban Meta good glasses, including real-time language translation and visible AI capabilities. PPC Land coverage
- November 18, 2024 – Meta expands Ray-Ban good glasses AI assistant to France, Italy, Eire, and Spain, citing LED privateness indicators as a key compliance mechanism underneath EU regulation. PPC Land coverage
- August 28, 2024 – California legislature passes AB 3048, requiring browsers and cell working methods to incorporate built-in data-sharing opt-out settings by January 1, 2026. PPC Land coverage
- April 4, 2025 – Google emails small enterprise house owners urging opposition to California AB 566, triggering public backlash from advertising professionals. PPC Land coverage
- July 1, 2025 – California Lawyer Normal declares $1.55 million CCPA settlement with Healthline Media, the biggest to this point, for failures together with sharing well being knowledge with advertisers. PPC Land coverage
- January 1, 2026 – Up to date CCPA necessities take impact in California, increasing consent and disclosure obligations for companies dealing with client knowledge. PPC Land coverage
- February 17, 2026 – Senator Eloise Gómez Reyes introduces SB 1130, the Wearable Gadget Privateness Safety Act, including new Sections 632.8 and 632.9 to California’s Penal Code and amending eight current sections. Invoice assigned to coverage committees for listening to dates.
Abstract
Who: Senator Eloise Gómez Reyes (D-Colton), representing California Senate District 29, launched the invoice. It targets people who function wearable recording gadgets, in addition to producers, sellers, and distributors of know-how that disables recording indicator lights.
What: Senate Invoice 1130, the Wearable Gadget Privateness Safety Act, would create two new felony statutes in California – Sections 632.8 and 632.9 of the Penal Code – prohibiting secret audio or video recording utilizing wearable gadgets inside locations of enterprise with out specific consent, banning the disabling of indicator lights, and barring the sale or manufacture of know-how enabling that disabling. First-time violations carry fines as much as $2,500 per incident; repeat offenders face fines as much as $10,000.
When: The invoice was launched on February 17, 2026, and can proceed to coverage committee hearings.
The place: The invoice applies in California, particularly in any bodily workplace or retail institution the place members of the general public obtain items or companies – together with medical services, monetary places of work, and retail shops.
Why: The laws responds to the industrial proliferation of AI-enabled good glasses and different wearable recording gadgets whose small indicator lights could be refined, neglected, or disabled by software program or {hardware} modifications. Senator Reyes argued that current consent regulation has not saved tempo with the technical actuality of gadgets that may file constantly with out apparent visible cues, creating dangers of covert surveillance in environments the place folks share delicate private, monetary, or well being info.
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