10,000 signatures reached
To: Kmart Group Managing Director Aleksandra Spaseska
Demand Kmart take the Anko surveillance glasses off the shelf
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I'm Gina Martin. I founded and ran a campaign that made upskirting a specific sexual offence in England and Wales. It became law in 2019.
Since then I've spent my career educating on inequality, misogyny, and the manosphere – and I’m a practitioner in the prevention of gendered violence here in Australia. So I know exactly how this pattern goes. The technology that makes it easy to violate someone arrives first, and the law limps along years behind it.
Non-consensual surveillance should not be normalised. Sign this petition asking Kmart to withdraw the product.
Why is this important?
Camera glasses are moving quickly into the mainstream. Meta has sold more than 7 million pairs and hired Kylie Jenner to sell more. At $89, against several hundred dollars for the Meta version, the technology becomes widely accessible. Kmart describes the glasses as part of an "established and increasingly mainstream category" of wearable technology. Critics say that is precisely the concern: a major retailer bringing covert recording into ordinary shopping baskets normalises it before the public has had any say. Tom Sulston, head of policy at Digital Rights Watch, told the Guardian that camera glasses are "a privacy nightmare" and that Australian privacy law has not kept pace with the technology.
Early reports of misuse have centred on women and children. A TikToker in the US was caught filming women in public with smart glasses and uploading the footage without their consent. RMIT's Dr Dana McKay warns the early reports of misuse are already targeting women, and that our privacy laws are nowhere near ready for cameras on people's faces. Parents commenting on Kmart's social media have raised the same question repeatedly: nothing prevents someone wearing the glasses into a change room, a swimming pool, a playground or a school gate.
Australia's privacy laws were drafted before wearable cameras were widely available. The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner says it is aware of community concerns and is monitoring the rollout, and has suggested that people worried about being recorded by another individual seek independent legal advice about whether other laws might apply. In practice, that leaves the decision with retailers.
The Ask
Kmart does not need a change in the law to act. Retailers withdraw products routinely. Sign the petition asking Kmart Group Managing Director Aleksandra Spaseska to withdraw the Anko camera glasses from Kmart stores and from the website. We know that fixing this problem requires more than a product recall – we need greater privacy laws to protect us. But our privacy laws are years behind this technology, and Kmart should not be selling covert surveillance tech while they catch up.