The Rise of the Ray-Ban Meta Creep

Meta Ray-Ban glasses make it easy to film (and harass) strangers

We regret to inform you that the pickup artists have discovered Meta Ray-Bans.

Meta's Ray-Ban Glasses Users Film and Harass Massage Parlor Workers

“The shameless use of covert recording technology at massage parlours to gain likes, attention, and online notoriety is both disgusting and dangerous.”

This App Warns You if Someone Is Wearing Smart Glasses Nearby

The creator of Nearby Glasses made the app after reading 404 Media's coverage of how people are using Meta's Ray-Bans smartglasses to film people without their knowledge or consent. “I consider it to be a tiny part of resistance against surveillance tech.”

Researchers Show How Meta's 'Pervert Glasses' Are Used to Harass Women

A new study shows how pickup artist influencers use smart glasses to create content, and the connection between covert recording and harm.

An Indian Trans Person’s Harrowing Encounter Fuels Backlash Against Meta AI ‘Pervert Glasses’

Karen Rebelo reports on incidents of abuse caused by use of Meta's wearable tech.

A $60 Mod to Meta’s Ray-Bans Disables Its Privacy-Protecting Recording Light

Meta’s Ray-Ban glasses usually include an LED that lights up when the user is recording other people. One hobbyist is charging a small fee to disable that light, and has a growing list of customers around the country.

I wore Meta’s smartglasses for a month – and it left me feeling like a creep

Content creators love the built-in camera; sceptics call them ‘pervert glasses’. Do we really need any more hi-tech wearables, even with a voice assistant that sounds like Judi Dench?

Meta’s Ray-Ban Smart Glasses Used To Instantly Dox Strangers In Public, Thanks To AI And Facial Recognition

Harvard students hack together a system to gather intel on strangers to build their trust, then share steps for the public to protect themselves from such technology.

Harm Through the “#RizzCam”: Smart Glasses, Ambient Capture and Invisible Harassment

In online safety research, harassment is commonly understood as involving overt and unwanted acts that create a hostile environment for individuals or groups. Smart glasses, or wearable digital devices that are often indistinguishable from ordinary eyewear but can record video, audio and location data in real time, enable new forms of online harassment and gender-based harms that may not be recognised by current online safety or platform governance frameworks. Drawing on an interpretive content analysis of 350 point-of-view Instagram videos posted by individuals self-associated with the pick-up artistry (PUA) community, we examine how smart glasses can be used to harass women through what we call ambient capture. Ambient capture includes clandestine recording of people and social interactions within public, semi-private and private spaces. We argue this can constitute harassment when it is targeted at women and shared online without their consent. In our study, we found videos using ambient capture practices to harass women that had gone undetected by Instagram’s content moderation systems. These findings suggest online safety regimes and content moderation approaches should be assessed to ensure they account for the more invisible forms of harassment introduced by smart glasses and other wearable technologies.

Someone Put Facial Recognition Tech onto Meta's Smart Glasses to Instantly Dox Strangers

The technology, which marries Meta’s smart Ray Ban glasses with the facial recognition service Pimeyes and some other tools, lets someone automatically go from face, to name, to phone number, and home address.

The Eyeball Problem

This week: why the collapse of print media is contagious; some stuff invented for space; and Pablo Escobar’s drug hippos.

Restaurants, pubs and theatres ban Meta’s ‘spy glasses’ over privacy fears

Meta says safeguards are in place to prevent surreptitious filming, but some UK venues now prohibit them from being worn at all

Meta glasses are a workplace menace

“Pervert” glasses are making jobs weird and putting workers on edge.

The Backlash Is So Strong That People With “Pervert Glasses” Are Afraid to Use Them in Public

Meta's camera-equipped "AI Glasses" are so divisive that some adopters are reportedly leaving their expensive smart glasses at home.

If you own Ray-Ban Meta glasses, you should double-check your privacy settings | TechCrunch

Meta has updated the privacy policy for its AI glasses, Ray-Ban Meta, giving the tech giant more power over what data it can store and use to train its AI models.