As demand for Meta AI glasses explodes, it’s harder to avoid creepy recordings

As smart glasses equipped with cameras become increasingly popular, concerns about nonconsensual recording have grown, prompting privacy advocates to warn about potential abuse including secret recordings, facial recognition, and deepfakes. Some public places including schools, courts, restaurants, and entertainment venues have begun banning the devices, but enforcement is difficult and relies on spotting the glasses or users voluntarily disclosing them. Hobbyist programmers have developed detection apps that alert people when smart glasses are nearby by identifying their Bluetooth signals, though these apps cannot confirm whether glasses are actively recording and have other limitations. Digital rights experts argue that comprehensive consumer privacy laws and social disapproval of nonconsensual recording are both necessary to address the privacy risks these devices pose.