Meta has quietly acknowledged the privacy concerns regarding its smart glasses by issuing an update that disables the camera when the privacy LED has been tampered with or destroyed.
This change follows reports about modders drilling out the light on their own glasses or others’ for a fee.
Meta also said that it is patrolling its own products, like Facebook and Instagram, to remove ads for such services.
“In addition to disabling the camera on devices when tampering is detected, we work across Meta to remove ads, posts, and Marketplace listings that advertise these kinds of tampering services and we will take action, up to banning accounts that do this. We also take legal action against people or businesses that sell services designed for tampering with the capture LED — both on and off our own platforms.” – Meta
This is far from the first time Meta’s smart glasses have faced criticism about privacy, but the more prevalent the product, the bigger the backlash.
As Meta itself said in its announcement, “This is one of the fastest-growing consumer products of our lifetimes.” The ubiquity of the glasses is an unsettling addition to a society that has had to rapidly adjust to surveillance.
Smart glasses are being used to harass women
The issue particularly affects women, who are being secretly filmed by strangers and partners alike. Women have reported being approached by men who have filmed them in public and then demanded money to remove the videos from social media, being recorded during sexual encounters without their consent, and, as happened recently to prominent fashion stylist Gabriella Karefa-Johnson getting covertly filmed while being asked questions that could have professional and other consequences while inebriated.
All of this calls into question Meta’s motivations in making a play for more women to use its smart glasses by partnering with Kylie Jenner on its Starfire model of smart glasses.
By making a style that’s in line with trends and putting them on a woman who has moved millions of units of her own merchandise, Meta is obviously trying to get women to co-sign the technology. It’s a ploy that has largely backfired.
However, it does serve to highlight just how well the smart glasses blend in among a sea of similar styles, particularly because Meta has partnerships with Ray-Ban and Oakley to fashion models that are virtually indistinguishable from their regular lines.
A few weeks ago, Meta competitor Snapchat unveiled its Specs, which were widely derided for their bulky, hideous design. One thing you can certainly say for them though is that no one will mistake them for anything but smart glasses.
