Apple NASDAQ:AAPL is making privacy a central part of its smart-glasses strategy as it tries to overcome concerns about camera-equipped AI wearables.
The company has reportedly delayed the product partly to refine both the hardware and its privacy policies. Apple is now targeting a reveal at its Worldwide Developers Conference next June, followed by a consumer launch by the end of 2027.
Apple is exploring safeguards including more on-device AI processing, no facial recognition, limits on continuous environmental scanning and a policy against using customer recordings to train its models. It is also testing additional hardware and software protections.
The approach could help Apple differentiate its glasses from Meta's NASDAQ:META Ray-Ban devices, which helped popularise the category but also intensified concerns about covert recording. Schools, hospitals, courts and other venues have already restricted some camera-equipped wearables.