The Creeping Dangers of Meta's AI-Powered Smart Glasses

Imagine if every time you left the house, you couldn’t be sure that the stranger you met at a bar – or even the person walking by you in the street – wasn’t secretly recording you. It sounds like something out of a Black Mirror episode, but let’s face it, the era of wearable technology is fully upon us as everyday accessories have been developed to help track health and fitness data, receive smartphone notifications, and provide hands-free accessibility. So when Meta announced their AI glasses a few years ago, it wasn’t too surprising that one of the biggest (and most embattled) tech companies on earth had begun cashing in on our obsession with watching others. And their AI glasses have already raised serious concerns over privacy, personal safety and even our sense of agency. At least on current models, the cameras on Meta’s smart glasses are somewhat conspicuous (you can see the camera lens, and the glasses are supposed to alert people that they’re being recorded), but no less creepy. For a woman, the dangers here are obvious. Men have recorded interactions with women in which they try to flirt with them, and then post the videos on TikTok and Instagram without the women’s permission or even knowledge. This kind of manfluencer content is becoming frighteningly normal, with male influencers using it to build massive online fanbases. One woman told the BBC a man recorded her, and then demanded money to remove the videos from social media, another described being recorded during sexual encounters without her consent. This kind of digital sexual abuse has become even more common as cameras become smaller and more deeply embedded into our accessories. Still, Meta claims they’re doing something about it. “Our glasses have an LED light that activates whenever someone captures content, so it’s clear to others that the device is recording and features tamper detection technology to prevent people from covering that light,” the company told CNN in response to a story about misuse of the glasses. CNN, however, says none of the women they spoke to said they saw a flashing light on the glasses during their interactions. Meta’s safety guidelines say smart glasses should not be used for “harassment, infringing on privacy rights, or capturing sensitive information”. As if a warning like that has ever stopped anyone from abusing technology. Meanwhile, there are creators on social media teaching viewers how to get around the flashing light safeguard. Meta has updated the glasses in an effort to prevent this. But it’s not just individual bad behaviour that gives me the creeps; the potential applications of this kind of surveillance technology are even more spine-chilling when you think about how far western governments are willing to go in order to surveil their citizens, and how some tech companies continue to make themselves available as collaborators in this monitoring. According to a Wired analysis, Meta quietly embedded face-recognition technology for its smart glasses into its AI app. The feature, internally called “NameTag”, identifies people captured by the glasses’ camera and can alert the wearer when it recognizes someone, Wired’s analysis found. The AI models powering NameTag are also capable of detecting faces, cropping them, and then encoding them into biometric data. Imagine what this technology could do in the hands of a stalker, or the government. While these privacy concerns swirl, Meta is recruiting celebrities to help push their wearables and suffocate the obvious backlash. Kylie Jenner is the newest celeb to push Meta’s smart glasses, even as women around the world complain about how this is being misused to harass them. When it comes to protecting your privacy, pasting over your computer’s webcam and turning off Siri won’t cut it, as tech companies stretch their tentacles into every aspect of our lives. And the more these systems are developed, used by influencers and propped up by celebrities, the less we view them as aberrant. Even if we can’t stop the government from watching us, I don’t want to live in a world where anyone off the street can scan my face and access my biodata or record me without my consent. Today it’s misogynistic YouTube videos; what’s next?