When the man in the crowd asked me about my glasses, I knew I had made a mistake. It was a Saturday night, and I was in a London bar, queueing to get a drink. “Why are your glasses flashing?” he asked me over the noise of the crowd. I flushed scarlet.
“They’re filming!” I shouted back. “They’re smart glasses!” In return, I got a look that was equal parts interest and alarm. Just your regular Saturday night, except I was wearing Meta glasses and had just been called out on it. With fumbling fingers, I pressed the pause button.
I thought capturing some footage of the bar’s interior would be a bit of fun; suddenly, I felt like a creep. To make things worse, our awkward interaction had now been captured for posterity, or at least until I deleted it in a fit of shame two hours later.
Shortly after the blunder, I left the bar and slunk home. Why hadn’t I thought I’d be called out? Nobody minds when you film with a phone camera. But then again, phone cameras are far more obvious than Meta glasses.
This happened last summer, when the product was still relatively new and slightly less contentious. I had been given a pair some years ago, back when Meta was launching an upgraded version of their glasses in the UK and wanted to get the press on board.
At the time, the technicians we spoke to were very keen to highlight the safety measures built into the glasses. The bright white light – the cause of my downfall in the bar – signalled that you were filming. They were tamper-proof, too, they explained – there was a lot of emphasis on “security”.
If the light was covered, the camera simply wouldn’t work, I was assured (though workarounds have since been found for this). And there were an endless number of ways you could use them. They could play music. They could take pictures – either via voice command or with a button. And, of course, they could film.
At the time, I was excited. This felt like cutting-edge technology, and I took them out on a walk through the city. I took photos of Hampstead Heath; the London streets; my local Sainsbury’s fruit and vegetable aisle. I blasted tunes through the built-in speakers.
But for some reason, the excitement soon curdled. I never used them again after those two outings last summer. Looking at the latest headlines, perhaps I should have known why. Meta’s reputation has taken a steep nosedive – its steepest since the product was launched back in 2021.
This week, the tech giant has been accused of deliberately preying on young people and concealing the truth about social media and children’s mental health in a landmark court case in the US, which the company repeatedly denies. Meta could be fined up to $1.4trn (about £1trn) for its alleged failure to protect children.
Meanwhile, despite the loud celebrity PR campaign for Meta glasses – featuring Kylie Jenner, Chris Pratt and Chris Hemsworth, among other big names – the wearable gadget has mostly made headlines for the decidedly sinister way in which they could be used. That is, to film other people, often without their consent.
Social media has been awash with evidence of Meta glasses used inappropriately. Accounts have been springing up showing women being videoed without their knowledge or consent and having those videos uploaded to TikTok. They often follow the same format – a man approaches a woman or group of women, before dropping a pick up line, or asking for their name and number.
In other cases, clips appear of women in mundane public places or on nights out. One Instagram account is run by a man who presents himself as a dating expert. His video titled “Approaching a Russian Girl in Vietnam” got 2.1 million views, and has since been removed. Another titled “Approaching a Hungarian woman in Vietnam” has 224,000 views. There are many accounts of this genre on social media.
A different account on TikTok has racked up thousands of views for his “Meta Glasses Chronicles” videos, which include him chatting up women at his local gym in the US.
“A best friend of mine was recorded by a man in Meta glasses at her work,” Sarah*, based in London, says. The experience has been a wake-up call on how behind legislation is. “He posted it and got millions of views so fast. She hated it. She felt vulnerable and insecure about how she looked that day. It sucked.” Though it was reported to TikTok, the video wasn’t taken down. “I thought it was illegal to record others in public [or] post them without consent,” she adds. “But the laws are so behind, we had no leg to stand on.”
‘On the one hand this technology is absolutely life-changing,’ says Kate Flounders, CEO of the Safeguarding Association. ‘But another group of people who are potentially using them for very illicit means’ (Photo: Derek Henderson)UK law currently states that it is only illegal to photograph or video a person where they have a “reasonable expectation of privacy”, which does not apply to public spaces including public transport. Since 2015, the law has specifically prohibited the sharing of private, sexual photos or videos of another person without their consent. Since 2019, this includes upskirting, and since 2021, this includes threatening to disclose intimate sexual images (“revenge porn”). But there remains no legal requirement to ask for permission to film anyone, even minors, in public.
As of this week, Meta glasses have been banned from use in courts, restaurants and pubs in the UK due to privacy concerns. However, there are no specific laws in place to prevent them being used in public. It’s not a surprise that they’ve been branded “pervert glasses” as a result. So, why do people continue to wear them?
“On the one hand, we’ve got a brilliant technology that should be used to really support a community of people for whom this is absolutely life-changing,” says Kate Flounders, CEO of the Safeguarding Association. Indeed, they have been embraced by the disabled community, who use them primarily as visual aids, thanks to the way the glasses can scan and describe the environment (including words) via their integrated Meta AI capabilities.
“But we have another group of people who are potentially using them for very illicit means. Not just necessarily for image generation, from a sexual abuse perspective, but from a fraud perspective, from a scam perspective.” Flounders experienced the glasses first hand recently, when a relative wore them to a dinner, and took videos. Even though the relative got the consent of the table, “It was really weird,” she says. “I accept I’m somebody who doesn’t like having a video taken. But this felt really intrusive.”
She has also heard anecdotes of people feeling uncomfortable about being filmed in public by wearers. “The issue of being a willing participant utterly disappears, because those glasses film whatever you’re looking at,” she says.
Despite how fierce the backlash has become, I must also confess: I did bring the glasses with me on one third and final outing, to a music festival last year. I had visions of dancing in front of the main stage, taking crisp pictures with the touch of a button. Ultimately, they stayed in the box. Which is where they remain, shoved to the back of my wardrobe.
A shiny, fancy new invention these glasses may be, but does anyone – apart from those with special additional needs – actually benefit from their existence? Ah, yes: creeps and Mark Zuckerberg.
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