Yesterday I saw someone with Meta smart glasses in public for the first time. Even just standing near him was unpleasant. It doesn’t matter whether it’s recording, pointing a camera and mics at somebody who didn’t agree to it feels rude and a bit shocking.
I worry that this is becoming more acceptable or do others feel the same way? Companies keep pushing forward, now with smart neckleses, smart headphones, (all equipped with camera and mic). Are these all doomed to fail? What feature would convince me or others to actually start using them? It’s certainly not chatgpt strapped on your face, or a shitty quality spy camera either.
If any of my friends or family wore these, I wouldn’t feel comfortable speaking to them.
Im interested in your experiences. Thanks for reading.
There should be a law brought in so that any glasses fitted with cameras/microphones have to be clearly labeled (as in etched so it cant be removed) with a warning along the front face of the glasses and also make it to they can only be bright obnoxious high visibility colours like neon green/orange.
Lets see how “fashionable” they are when they make you look like a member of LMFAO.
The meta glasses supposedly are designed with a bright led on the front that comes on when the camera or microphone is recording.
Edit: I had forgotten when I wrote this that there are companies already offering services where you can send in your meta glasses and they claim they will somehow disable/bypass the LED indicator.
Yeah and people put little pieces of black tape over it that blends in with the black sunglasses and render that LED meaningless.
I don’t think that works anymore because I believe the LED is also a sensor that when covered (no light in) prevents recording.
And that doesn’t work because you can place your hand over the camera which will trick the glasses into thinking you are in the dark which will allow you to start recording, then you just take your hand away.
Youtube is full of videos that show people how to circumvent the LED on the these glasses. Its not rocket science.
I’m not saying that it’s not feasible, I’m saying the hardware changed since those first “hacks”.
Are you saying you tried on the latest version and covering the light sensor within the LED allow recording?
Because my best is that the videos are showcasing this on older models which precisely did not included that sensor. Here is a 404 episode on that https://www.404media.co/how-to-disable-meta-rayban-led-light/
Some laptops have that. They’re completely impossible to circumvent, right?
Depends entirely on the implementation. If it’s wired right into the power line for the camera/mic, then it comes on when power goes to that hardware, but without extra engineering you could just pull off the LED and solder over the gap in the trace/wire.
And I have to apologize, I had forgotten that there are already third party companies advertising services to bypass/disable it on the meta glasses. Have to edit my last comment.
I recently asked a friend to remove their meta glasses while we were out to eat. It was awkward for a moment but they were understanding, and we had a good talk about privacy and tech after.
If any of my friends showed up with facebook glasses, they would be ridiculed to the point of them either getting rid of them or us no longer being friends.
I’m not here for your entertainment, or whatever you’re going to use that footage for. That’s your deal, not mine. Take them off, or not coming in the house.
Ok
Only an absolute tool would wear that crap.
Let me introduce you to my friend who thinks Fucker Carlson has good ideas, and that Musky is Iron man.
His glasses arrive tomorrow.
My first time seeing anything about the meta Rayban glasses was some guy sexually harassing my friend at work as a “prank video.” He used the glasses as a secret recording device then posted it on facebook.
Sadly not the only one https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx23ke7rm7go
I mean I get it. Weird to have a private company walking monitoring device that proudly does so so they can… Upload more to social media? It just sorta marks you as a hyper user and in the past we would have doubted those types even came outside.
Like I would pair it with the people who have only clothes and decorated with souvenir items from some random brand. It IS a weird look.But unfortunately Flock exists and they are everywhere, spun up in seconds with cameras just running light and are even easily hacked. So like privacy wise its less a concern but personally… Definitely not a fan and I get uncomfortable around them. I don’t want to be used for content or actively sold by you just for being near.
This is the next logical iteration of “if you aren’t doing anything wrong then you have no reason to be concerned with people filming you without your knowledge/consent!”
It was never a good argument, but too many people seemed to believe it and now we’re here…
Since these types never understand anything until it directly affects them, we should all ensure it does quickly and at all costs, because eventually it will cost us everything.
New rule: recording someone else without their consent gives them partial ownership of your device: enough that they can rightfully destroy it if they so choose.
Glasshole indeed!
What an absolute Stacy, massive respect
21st Century Bernie Goetz.
Don’t worry, he’s just making videos to jerk off to later.
Are there any glasses that block smart glasses available? Like a localized jammer, or like shining an IR light at a camera, sort of thing?
One project that can help with this is the OUI-SPY, a small piece of open source hardware. The OUI-SPY runs on a cheap Arduino compatible chip called an ESP-32. There are multiple programs available for loading on the chip, such as “Flock You,” which allows people to detect Flock cameras and “Sky-Spy” to detect overhead drones. There’s also “BLE Detect,” which detects various Bluetooth signals including ones from Axon, Meta’s Ray-Bans that secretly record you, and more. It also has a mode commonly known as “fox hunting” to track down a specific device.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/01/how-hackers-are-fighting-back-against-ice
met up with a family member once who was wearing them and i immediately put on a face mask.
I worry you might not have a representative audience here, as most of Lemmy is privacy-savvy. I guess most people just don’t care, and if it keeps this way, it will be no different than smartphones (which are primarily spy devices most people carry around all the time and no one notices anymore).
I would get a very powerful magnet and ruin their devices. That works right? Otherwise I’ll get a device that scrambles smart devices. Fuck Zuckerberg.
Magnets have no effect on flash memory or storage.
Does it? Would be keen to know about this. Gonna have to keep some in my bag 🤣
If you hit the glasses hard enough it will to the job as good as a hammer… failing that it takes a tad too much power for a « magnet » to affect electronics at a distance.
😄 I’m a millennial so back in the day we learned that magnets ruin some electronics, but things might have changed now. So we need a knowledgeable tech person to let us know.
Magnets mostly messed with tapes, floppies and hard disks. I believe you could also mess up a CRT’s calibration with one.
None of those technologies are particularly commonplace these days, especially not in those glasses.
I mean an MRI level magnet could crush them, but you’re gonna struggle to move that around
I guess CRTs were fine. I used to play a lot with that. If it’s looking funny, use degauss and watch the magic.
DONKkk vvvvvvvvvvrrrrrr click
The law should be that the recording can only be used in private, by the owner of the device, not a company. If anyone shares the imagery or steals it, they should be subject to some kind of day-fine.
That would be nice.
That presumes the law works for you.
The police state loves that they can just buy the data the big tech companies are happily farming. No warrants, no judges, no pesky civil rights to get in the way. Just full time monitoring.
So true, well said and thx for saying it
I feel the same way about smartphones but it’s now completely normalised. Glasses are less paranoia-inducing since you can clearly see where it’s pointed and it’s at eye-level. I’d rather discourage smartphone use than smart-glasses use.
LoL @ the downvotes. Step one is acknowledging one’s addiction.
I’m usually against punching people in the face from behind then running away…
From behind? How many elbows do you have?
I would not stay nearby.
Imho this ‘trend’ will end:
- the day enough of the wearers start getting punched in the face. Not that I encourage anyone to do that, I don’t, but seeing how… angry and and willing to fight so many people already are, I can’t imagine it won’t happen more and more as those stupid glasses become more common.
- If enough people start shaming them/their behavior, and it becomes a hurdle to wear those in public.
Otherwise, it will probably become as ‘normal’ as messaging people sitting right next to you instead of, you know, talking to them.
If I ever see someone with those glasses I will straight up punch them in the eye. I am not kidding. I would rather have someone walk around with a gun than those (and guns are illegal here)
