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Meta has announced that their Ray-Ban smart glasses will now stop recording if they detect that someone has tampered with the LED light on the front.
Over the years, plenty of tech companies have attempted to make smart glasses that are supposed to help you with everyday life. Some have focused on being able to record videos from your eyeline, while others have looked to replace your mobile phone by having a heads-up display.
Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses have, to this point, been the most successful of the lot. However, they have come under fire for a number of security concerns. Most notably, users have been tampering with the flashing LED light that allows others to see that you’re recording – including even drilling the light out.
This has seen calls made to Meta to make a change, and they finally have.
Meta cracks down on smart glasses tamperers
On July 7, the tech giant announced that any glasses that detect their lights have been tampered with will actually no longer record footage.
“We are continuously improving our ability to detect tampering, and now we’re updating the glasses to disable the camera if they detect the LED was physically tampered with or destroyed. No other kind of camera has done this and we’re proud to lead the industry forward,” they said.
“As our glasses become more capable and common, our teams continue to work on ways to make them even safer and more trustworthy. We set a high standard for our AI glasses because we believe it’s an essential component of any good technology,” they added.
Meta / Ray-BanMany new Smart Glasses come with a camera installed to record moments from your POV.
Meta also noted that they’ve been clamping down on posts that advertise the ability to tamper with the lights too.
As noted, there have been other security concerns with the smart glasses too. As per an investigation from Swedish newspapers Svenska Dagbladet and Göteborgs-Posten, personal footage captured on Meta’s Ray-Bans smart glasses is being shared with reviewers elsewhere – that includes you going to the toilet.
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There is also an app that will warn you if glasses are detected nearby, too.
