1y ago

Meta sparks privacy fears after unveiling $299 Smart Glasses with hidden cameras: ‘You can now film everyone without them knowing’

nypost.com Meta unveils stylish — yes really — Smart Glasses with freakishly advanced AI capabilities

These stylish shades may look like a regular pair of Ray-Ban Wayfarers — but “it’s a bit obvious when you’re walking into public toilets with your phone in the air compared to wea…

Meta sparks privacy fears after unveiling $299 Smart Glasses with hidden cameras: ‘You can now film everyone without them knowing’::These stylish shades may look like a regular pair of Ray-Ban Wayfarers, but they're actually Meta's new Smart Glasses, complete with two tiny cameras and speakers implanted in the arms. The wearable tech was unveiled by Mark Zuckerberg Wednesday at the 2023 Meta Connect conference in Menlo Park, California, sparking a frenzy online.

251 comments

I remember when Google glasses came out, people got assaulted for wearing them
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/san-francisco-woman-says-she-was-attacked-for-wearing-google-glass/
Her Facebook post 💀
“OMG so you’ll never believe this but… I got verbally and physically assaulted and robbed last night in the city, had things thrown at me because of some ---- Google Glass haters,” Slocum posted to Facebook.
- Several bars in my city banned people wearing them.
  
  Venues will just need to implement infrared checks at the door.
- The trick is now you can’t tell. Should it be illegal? Heck yes. Will it? “Hmm … technology, so important … innovation.. privacy is dead anyway …. terrorism prevention.. “
  
  Should it be illegal?
  In the US, it's been long held people do not have the "expectation of privacy" while out in public. One of the major issues that you've kinda touched on is how would it be enforced? So are you opposed to all forms of recording? Or is this more focused on a corporation potentially gathering data on people just by being in public where someone is wearing these?
  
  Why should it be illegal?
  It’s perfectly legal to photograph strangers in public. You’re in public you have no reasonable expectation of privacy.
  I don’t see people assaulting CCTV cameras for instance.
  Sure some weirdos might I use it for nefarious reasons but if it didn’t exist they would still be weirdos using something else.
  
  IT'S FOR THE CHILDREN
  
  How would banning these be enforceable though? They are only going to get more discreet, they will eventually appear completely indistinguishable from regular glasses.
  There are certain ways to detect cameras, such as monitoring for infrared, but that would not work for all camera tech and could be hard to triangulate to exact people in crowded areas. There are also ways to detect electronic devices on a person but doing so could quickly become just as invasive in other ways.
  
  Why should be illegal!?
  
  I think some cameras will "pop out" on your screen if you take a picture of them, right?
  What a shitty future ahead of us. "Why are you taking a picture of me?!" "Because you're wearing some suspicious glasses and I want to make sure that you are not recording me. Yup. There they are."
  Edit: well, after seeing some pictures, you can still tell that the cameras are there. But you have to be looking for them, which is still shitty.
- Everything old is new again
  https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2013/06/14/glasshole
- What will be the new name for Glassholes in the Meta era?
- Boiled the frog too quickly

"They trust me — dumb fucks," says Zuckerberg
Always good to keep in mind
- Alt headline: Dude with boundary issues makes least surprising glasses ever

A quick search on Amazon for "spy camera" finds a bunch of devices small enough to easily conceal inside clothing, built in to pens, and built in to watches. A search for "spy camera glasses" finds exactly that, and most of them are well under $300. We're already well into the era of being able to film everyone without them knowing.
- They aren’t directly connected to a social network and promoted with vast marketing resources however.
  I remember playing with one of these about 10 years ago that looked like a car key fob, it recorded somewhat subpar footage in a weird format to a microSD card. A neat novelty but not very practical to use unless you really had a need to do covert surveillance of something, which most people don’t.
  However if it’s made to be effortless to push watchable footage to social media, and people are heavily encouraged and incentivised to do so and it’s a different proposition.
- I think it is just a matter of convenience. Very few people buy lasers to aim them at airplanes. Give everyone a laser and you'll get a thousand reports of people aiming lasers at their plane.
- Those at least don't automatically sync to Zuck.
- People aren't a fan of those existing either, but not much you can do about it. At least, you can assume that it's only a tiny fraction of people who own these devices, let alone carry them around, ready to go.
  With these glasses, more people will own them and will have them ready to go, on their nose.
  
  Smart glasses outside of specific applications were a fad when Google did them and will continue to be, at best, a fad.
- Those cameras only record locally.
  These glasses presumably upload every frame to corporate data centers to be cataloged and used to profile the people in the images.

Hidden cameras? They've got big ol fuckin cameras on them and apparently a red LED that lights up when in use lol. It'd be easier to secretly film someone by pretending you're texting on your phone. More ragebait.
- You seriously think it wouldn't be trivial to disable the LED?
  And by the time you notice the LED you've already been filmed.
  
  It would be trivial to just buy spy cameras already built for spying. The tech already exists
  
  Buddy, have you been on Aliexpress recently? It's trivial to wire tiny cameras all over your body if you really wanted.
  Not that it matters, I can point an 8K cinema camera at you in public, and you don't legally get a say.
  
  The LED detects when it is blocked and the device refuses to function until it is unblocked. So no, working around that won't be trivial, at least until somebody has found a workaround.
  If Meta wanted to be really throughout with this, they could also keep record of how often there is an issue with the LED and brick the device and close your account if they detect tempering. The whole "trivial to disable" doesn't fly in a world of closed ecosystem, locked down hardware and accounts requiring a real ID.
  Also you can get spy cameras for $5 from Aliexpress anyway, so why even bother hacking this. Snapchat has some video recording glasses too if one needs an alternative.
  
  Again you can record already without any led while "reading your messages" with your phone. Like I feel they did the expected and necessary.
  Plus is not like there isn't already available pens, USB chargers, watches or whatever they can come up secret cameras, like if the intention was to secretly record somebody they wouldn't go with this ones disabling the led.... plenty of better less suspicious alternatives.
  
  Ray ban have had them for years. I hate meta but it's not just them.
  
  It took me a 3 second google search to find that it doesn't work with the LED covered.
  By the time you notice someone's phone is out you've already been filmed. That's status quo these days, it isn't any creepier than every single person walking around with a camera in their pocket.
- I imagine it wouldn't take long until someone finds a way to disable that LED.
  
  looks like a sharpie would do the trick
- Exactly. The pearl-clutching over smart glasses is so misplaced. You're already being recorded constantly in public, what's the big deal?
  
  Pearl clutching over new tech is the satanic panic of modern times
  
  Y’all use the same vocab religiously, I’m just gonna start training models and feeding it to bots to auto respond to y’all lmfao

I miss when CCTV was a world ending privacy concern. Its gotten so much worse in the last decade.
- Perhaps one of the biggest advances in human knowledge is in how to make ultra-slick slippy-slopes for abstract ideas. It seems to me that the most common reason people give for accepting some new bullshit is that we already have some other bullshit which is worse. But it is the accumulation of additional bullshit that has gotten us into this mess. I'm referring mostly to sacrifices of privacy; and to loss of freedom of use in products and software; the ownership being replaced with ongoing fees and subscriptions. That kind of thing.

Incredibly funny to see the NY Post pretend that these glasses were just now "unveiled". This line of camera-equipped glasses has been around for 2 years now.
- It's not funny. It's predictable. They're reporting it because Meta did it. Any time a large corporation does anything, it's NEWS.
  
  Meta did it last time also.

You're being filmed everywhere you go and you probably don't even know it.
- Doesn't make it ok.
- Not right in your face at the bar while drunkenly discussing your most regretful one night stands tho.
- Not everywhere - not yet.
- We're all part of the Truman show.

Not a thing was learned from Google Glass huh? Alrighty then.
- I almost like the idea of augmented reality with similar tech. I'd love it if I could look down the street and see historic photos of building overlaid perfectly.
  The issue isn't the technology, it's the people who are supplying it and it's connection to the Internet and sharing. I don't trust Google and I don't trust Meta.
  
  I was referring to the privacy issues of Google Glass. I’m with you on the trust factor of these two companies.
  
  Would be cool if we got some open source glasses. If Niantic made glasses for Pokemon Go, Google is their parent, no bueno.
  
  It's not even that for me. Just don't put a camera on the front.
- I think the lesson they learned from Google Glass is that the glasses have to be cooler, not make you look like a nerd, and the technology has to be way better.
- Google Glass at least had a screen. This appears all phony based
- Cant believe I had to scroll down to see this.
  I read the headline and thought, "this again?"

Google glass 2.0
- We were rightly worried about Google glass, we had no idea there was something even worse on the horizon

Just saying, hidden cameras have been a thing long before the internet was invented
- Bad people doing bad things is nothing new.
  But these things allow good, otherwise well-intentioned, people, to become unwitting moles for Meta.
  
  This is an excellent point +1
  
  Already done by having Facebook, Threads, or Instagram on your phone

I can't imagine being friends or even acquaintances with a person who would want to live stream their POV as a day to day activity.
- I wouldn't either, although I can see the appeal for moment capture and some of the other cool features.
  However I would never even consider this product, because it's meta spyware garbage.

NYPost is right wing trash.

NYPost.
come on now

‘You can now film everyone without them knowing’ Implying that we dont already have cameras always with us, and can perfectly do that.
- Yeah I’m confused. I can already do this and no one notices. Start a stream on my iPhone, slip it into my shirt pocket with the camera facing forward. Never had anyone complain, and it’s easier to talk to my spouse about what they want from the store.
- Not all surveillance is created equal.
- Are you referring to phones or the CCTV monitoring culture...?
  
  Yes!
- A bunch of corporations been recording me and using my data for their own gain for a decade. Now you tell me some normie is going to record me? Do I care?

My cyberpunk future of me using a full head mask every time I'm out in public is getting closer.

Black mirror vibes

Umm... what the hell is that thumbnail? https://i.imgur.com/0l2TAh3.png
- Some girl eating pizza.
- It's the thumbnail provided by the article, found inside the html
  undefined
  
  meta property="og:image" content="https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/09/meta-glasses-comp.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&w=1024"

So will they just not work in 2 party consent states?
- Clearly the smart glasses wearer will just wear a shirt that outlines their TOS and that by interacting with them, you agree to be recorded.

Downvote all news corpse articles

So this is just an ad, huh.
- I don't think "you can film everyone without then knowing" is something Facebook wants to advertise
  
  Yes it is and they are hoping to sell a bunch of them for more than they are worth before the backlash gets loud enough and they have to stop. But it will give a big boost of sales for sure for a minute

- They say the hands never lie about the age, clearly they still can't lie about the ai either.
  
  yes, that is a robot
- Holy sh*!!

This might actually be useful for when the cops pull you over. Or if you get bad service in a shop you'll have a video of it.
- This is exactly the kind of fear mongering that they are hoping people will buy into.
- I'd never grass up a shop worker because I have working class solidarity even with those in bad moods, but the coppers is a good example. Maybe also for road cyclists, but they already have cameras if they want them.
- Or for keeping your bosses honest, verbal contracts become an awful lot more binding with video evidence.
  
  Private companies almost all have provisions in their IT use policy banning this, and they can do this on their property. Just like they can ban firearms. Disney restricts some kind of video recording at their parks because of creepers and pervs, not that Disney is a model of privacy just that it's not uncommon.
  The correct response would be, absent elected officials who act to protect consumers, for people to call out employers and companies who would allow this in their space, shaming them, then the product would die.

I predict a uptick in assault and battery when people start recognizing these and get sick of them being used in public

My home cameras had some update that required the LED to be on to indicate it was capturing video. This should be required on these products.
- Which is kind of dumb, as it is easily bypassed with the super rare technology of "a piece of tape".
- Nice bright and obvious blinking red LED in the bridge.

People who don't understand that they already lost their privacy years ago: "GASP, this means someone could be recording me!"
- Which doesn’t make this any better of a future to live in.
- "You already lost your privacy so I can go ahead and film you without your consent" is certainly a take
  
  Have you never been to a city? You're literally being filmed all the time.
  If you can get things changed, I will send you $20
- Not necessarily. I can control my devices and prevent them from spying on me.
  I can install Linux on my PC and Graphene on my phone and refuse to use Google, Apple, and Meta products and services. I can choose to use local home automation products and cameras.
  What I can't do is stop other people from recording me throughout my daily life and reporting my activities back to said corporations.
- You know privacy isn’t just a binary thing, right?
  Otherwise I’d be posting a picture of you using your phone on the toilet.

Now you might have an idea how a company making $0 is getting funded.

Doesn't it have a 'recording' LED?
Remember the good ol' times when some guy stepped up in the cinema, stood in front of the audience, right when the movie was about to start:
"OK, Google!"
:-)
- Great, now they're going too have to put DMCA protection in and we're just gonna have people who don't want to constantly be recorded start wandering around blasting Disney music to trip their DMCA sensors

Meh, I assume I’m always on camera anywhere I’m in public. I don’t like it and I really don’t want to be recorded. I’m also realistic and understand that public spaces are… well public.
I understand privacy fears because there’s nothing stopping someone in my private space from recording me now other than mutual respect and consent. If all it takes is the ease of use of some fashionable frames then it’s time to rethink your relationships.
This also applies to semi-private spaces. So think at the office or a cozy booth in a coffee shop. Assume all public places are recorded (because they often are) and establish boundaries within your relationships.

They must have a different approach if Google glasses tried the same thing and failed miserably.
- Partnering with Luxotica/RayBan to make it look more like normal frames will keep it from being as obvious for one.
  
  The lens on the frame and the swiping to operate it are pretty obvious to me in the demo video.
  I think its going to be just as hated as google glass.
  
  Luxottica? Why is always Italy behind this kind of shit?
- They look like normal glasses, that's the different approach. The little camera lenses in the corners are the only giveaway.

"...look like a regular pair of Ray-Ban Wayfarers..."
So they're rebranded Ray-Ban Stories
- Which were Facebook branded/partnership.
  I do think it's weird those flew under the radar when people flipped out so much about Google Glass.

On the one hand I'd kinda love a pair of glasses that told me peoples names as I'm always forgetting them, or gave me directions without having to look at the phone.
On the other hand.. humans.

This is what's coming on the AR headsets that will eventually replace phones. Soon, if you're in public, you WILL be recorded by someone without your knowledge, and probably you already have been. There is no privacy in public areas, get used to it.
- There is no privacy in public areas
  Also already legal to take overt photos in public areas within some rational parameters (no upskirts, but otherwise it's pretty open.)
  People HATE the idea that they are being recorded but the reality is it's already happening every single day in all kinds of places you'd never expect. Never forget every phone has a camera on the back... and on the front... Ask yourself: Does yours notify you when it's in use?
  Then just think about things like key fob cameras, button cameras..
  Edit: Note, the Meta Smart Glasses are only releasing in the US, Canada and the UK. All three countries have no laws protecting privacy from photography in public, though my original comment was clearly about the US. Your local area will have it's on laws and restrictions, enjoy your regulations!
  
  Depends on the country though. Not every country allows you to take photos of others even in public
- You should read up on counter surveillance
  Some pretty easy hacks out there ;)
- Ar headsets aren't coming. The light field display tech won't be there if ever. You ever point a laser in your eye?

Can't wait for pervs to start using these to get upskirt videos.
Sticking whole head under a lady
- What? Why stick your head under?
  "oops I dropped my glasses!"
  
  Because that would ruin the joke.

Red led is no longer required?
- trivial to bypass
  
  The same tech that can block a webcam camera can also be used to block a camera is active led.

How very Meta

They don't really look "hidden" tbqh, the lenses are quite obvious.
I'm wondering if these could be useful to me as a prosopagnostic.
- Try standing 10 ft / 3m away, in a crowd, and not actually expecting anybody to have them. Would you notice?
  
  I guess, but by that standard having a mobile phone in a shirt pocket is also hidden.
  
  Well now we're already expecting people to have them, so yeah I think people will notice.

Out of the loop, do you need a facebook/meta account (if yes, how much info they requested) to use the glasses ?
- Yes. And yes
  
  Cant wait for the hackaday firmware

Idk, I assume I'm being watched via CCTV at least wherever I go nowadays. This may be literally in your face, but still... these devices will become invisible and ubiquitous.
- Does all that CCTV footage get firehosed to Zuck and friends so they can mass tag everyone in every photo whether you like it or not?

On the one hand I can't remember the many people I see at work and would love heads-up display saying names, birthdays and reminding me what we spoke about.
On the other hand I don't like cameras recording my socially embarrassing actions in the first place, let alone tell people who I am. Like hell I want Zuck to know what stupid shit I said 4 years ago to that one person I won't see ever again.

hidden camera prank videos are about to become a lot more rampant I think.

They should have used a photo from a webcam or old phone (or a noise filter) to better represent the nighttime quality of the tiny lenses. This one seems to have real DSLR depth of field. The interface is obviously fake, too. As a journalist, I would go the extra mile to take (or license) a shitty picture/video frame with motion blur (and no good-looking subject) and edit it into the supplied promotional material rather than plainly repost that obviously fake shit.

What about adding some strong infrareds on your hat?
- Aw yeah man, got any cool articles on how to assemble your own ;) maybe a little linky poo for the lazy to increase the number of people that’ll probably give it a go?
  
  Not sure what did you stick up your ass but I hope it was worth the hassle.

Now I have a fear of being filmed while scratching my nuts.
- Might as well just start an OnlyFans and make some lemonade out of the situation.

And in a future America, Joe Hillbilly shot Stylo Man, because Joe suspected Stylo to spy on him with his funny looking (but otherwise totally ordinary) glasses.

Didn't Google already try this?
- Google glasses were bloody obvious though.. you looked like a poundshop borg.
  
  That's because Google actually had HUDs in their glasses. Meta is purely audio.

Ok, but why?
Like, why??
I'd like to run a test on these executives, put everyone with a camera pointing at them whenever they step outside let's see how long it will take to them hate their own proposal.
- Data acquisition
  
  Noise acquisition, you mean.
- Cause Zucko needs even more ways to spy on us.
- In the bathroom. :)

Remember when Transmetropolitan made this seem cool

Is there a type of glasses that can detect cameras like an ir sensor?
- Cameras as usually passive (i.e. they don't emit light or any radiation, they just absorb the one that happens to land on their sensor), so no, not really.
  Tha would be true only for those infrared cameras that have active IR LEDs to see at night, or lidars, radars, structured light 3d cameras, time-of-flight distance sensors, etc or anything that actually emits something. Regular cameras don't.
  
  That's a bummer. Is there a heat sensor or something? It's doing something passive sunglasses don't, there has to be a way to tell?

stylish
Apparently their definition of "stylish" is vastly different from my definition.
WTF, this bargain-bin-level design.
- they look like normal glasses wym?
  
  They want to complain about the glasses, but all the salient points in the thread have been made, so they went with whatever.

If someone has a convo with me while wearing these fake ray-bans, we're gonna have heated words. Simple as.
It's one thing to be surveiled at a place for security purposes, but someone wanting to record me has decided they don't care about consent and that's more disrespectful. I will not be held at the whims of someone who feels obligated to share everything, because they're already broken inside to not care about anything but themselves.
- That's not how being in public works, mate...lol

I’m all for it. If I can walk through the grocery store and AI can track all the prices on everything and help me budget, i would think that’s pretty cool. Or, if I need to check back what a professor said in class and work on the board, boom no problem. I can see people not wanting to get filmed, but aren’t we already being filmed constantly already? Now I get to film for my benefit.
- My privacy issue would be the likely massive access they'd "require" in order to use. If using them means Meta gets access to all sorts of info just so I can use it, then hell no. If I have relatively complete control over the access I'm fine with it.
  
  Yeah, I can see that. I held out from Meta/FB for years for my data’s sake until I started dating a woman in South America and now I have to have What’sAp.
  I would love a private version, too, yes, where I had full control over my data. If Meta is taking basic metadata here, such as location, I think I would still use it, but if they are accessing the actual footage, or getting way to granular with the metadata, then yeah I guess that’s a bit more alarming. Still, it’s not far from what we already have today. You have to fight to not have all your behavior tracked.

251 comments