Invisible Camera: Are you being secretly recorded by AI smart glasses?

Sky, a 29-year-old transgender living in Delhi, was recorded with AI smart glasses without his knowledge.

Skye says of the experience, "It felt like I was in school again and I was being bullied. But this time it was happening on a much bigger scale."

This incident happened in April. Sky had gone to Delhi's Jantar Mantar to join the demonstration against the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Amendment Act, 2026.

According to Sky, a man came up to him and started calling him 'Aniruddhacharya' and 'Pookie Baba'.

'Pookie Baba' is a popular name used on the internet for Hindu religious leader Aniruddhacharya. Sky did not know at that time that he was being recorded.

About a month later, the reel of this incident went viral on Instagram, when he came to know that his video had been made.

In the same demonstration, the person running that Instagram account had also secretly recorded transfeminine graphic designer Shubnam.

Many people abused Shubnam on her video.

Over the next few days, Sky noticed that a few seconds of both videos were edited and reposted by several other accounts. Memes were also made from them.

These videos were viewed millions of times on different social media platforms.

Sky says that she felt insulted by the video and the comments written on it. She faced a lot of stress and online harassment.

Strangers made fun of him on the dating app. People harassed him in real life too.

This incident is part of a growing trend of making videos for social media. In this, people are secretly recorded in public places by wearing smart glasses.

Often the people whose video is being made are not aware of it, nor is their permission taken.

The BBC spoke to three such people who say that such incidents had a serious impact on their mental condition.

These include Bidisha, a 35-year-old lecturer from Kolkata.

One person has also been arrested on Bidisha's complaint. It is believed that this may be the first police case registered regarding such an incident in India.

On the evening of 11th June, Bidisha was going to her home through a dimly lit street of the city. At that very moment a person blocked his path.

He praised Bidisha, asked for her Instagram account and insisted on talking to her.

Bidisha did not show interest, but the man continued to pursue her. Ultimately Bidisha was successful in getting out of there.

Bidisha told the BBC, "There was no camera or other equipment visible in his hand that would make me think he was recording."

The next day, a student of Bidisha told him that the video of this meeting was circulating on Instagram.

Bidisha came to know that the person had started secretly recording her while following her from behind. He had recorded the entire conversation between the two.

He later edited the video. Those parts were removed from the video in which he was continuously chasing Bidisha and Bidisha was looking uncomfortable.

Looking at the edited video, it seemed as if both were talking comfortably as per their wish.

The creator of the video posted it as a video teaching "how to start talking to older women."

In the comment section of the video, many men commented on Bidisha's body and looks.

Many people asked the person who made the video how "coaching" can be taken from him to talk to women on the street.

After telling her friends, Bidisha came to know that the person was wearing smart glasses.

Bidisha does not use social media. That's why he neither watched the video nor read the comments on it in the beginning. At first he did not find the matter so serious.

But many friends and students told him about the disturbing comments on the video.

He also told that the person making the video can earn money by posting it on social media. After this Bidisha understood the seriousness of the matter.

He said, "What troubled me most was that this was part of a plan by some misogynistic 'pick-up artist' who treated women as objects."

In August, another young man came to Bidisha in a public place with a phone in his hand.

Bidisha was afraid that she was being secretly recorded again. She ran away from there.

After this he decided to go to the police. But filing a complaint with the police was also not easy.

According to Bidisha, the police was initially not ready to register an FIR.

The police asked her whether she was married and whether she already knew the accused.

After trying for several hours, finally an FIR was registered against that person.

He was charged with wrongful obstruction, eavesdropping or recording, and stalking.

The police officer investigating the case told BBC that the accused was arrested a few days after the FIR was registered.

He was kept in police custody for a day. After this he was sent to judicial custody and later released on bail.

Mishi Chaudhary, a technology-related lawyer and activist for civil rights on the internet, told the BBC that AI glasses can be misused.

Despite this, India's current laws are not fully prepared to deal with such surreptitious recordings.

According to him, making such recordings "is often very wrong, but it is not explicitly considered a crime in law."

He said that depending on what is shown in the video, a case could be made out for offenses like defamation, eavesdropping or recording, stalking and criminal intimidation.

But there is no specific law explicitly prohibiting surreptitious recording in any public place.

For this reason, such cases related to violation of privacy get stuck in a legal situation where it is not clear under which law action should be taken.

At the same time, it can have a serious impact on the people facing such incidents.

Bidisha says that after this incident she started feeling fear and doubt all the time. Now they feel nervous even going to public places.

The three people who encountered the surreptitious recording told the BBC that it was extremely difficult to get such videos removed from social media platforms.

Meta rules do not allow harassment.

But when reporting a post on Instagram, there is no separate category for privacy violation or recording without consent through smart glasses.

Because of this, people have to file their complaints in the category of "bullying and harassment".

Sky and Shubnam had filed a complaint on Instagram that their videos violate the rules of the platform.

Despite this, both the videos remained online for about a month.

Both the videos were removed from the original account only after the intervention of Mumbai's Raati Foundation.

Raati Foundation works to create safe spaces for women, children and vulnerable gender communities.

Being a security partner of Meta, this organization has a separate way to complain. Through this the videos can be removed.

However, many edited versions of these videos are still present on social media.

Bidisha's video remained online for more than two months. During this period it was viewed 25 lakh times.

His friends complained on Instagram that the video violates its rules. Even after this the video was not removed.

When Bidisha went to the police and a police officer directly called the person who made the video, he deleted the video.

In another incident in Pune, two teenage girls were recorded using AI glasses without their consent. One of them was a minor.

Rati Foundation got this video removed within three days.

However, the accounts posting such videos are still active.

They are continuously uploading videos that appear to be recorded through smart glasses without the consent of the people present nearby. These videos are being viewed millions of times.

Two of these accounts currently have 3.9 lakh to 4.4 lakh followers on Instagram.

One of these accounts had posted a video of transgender people. Another account had posted videos of teenage girls from Pune.

The account that posted Bidisha's video also has more than 10 thousand followers.

Chhaya Rajput is the co-manager of the Digital Rights Helpline of Mumbai-based organization Point of View. This organization works for gender equality and justice on the internet.

He said that systems that automatically check social media posts often do not understand the social and cultural context of privacy violations in India.

These systems typically identify and remove only serious violations, such as sexual content or nudity.

But even due to a seemingly normal post, a woman or a person may have to face harassment on a large scale.

Meta, the company that owns Instagram and Facebook, says that privacy has been kept in mind from the beginning while making its AI glasses.

A Meta spokesperson told the BBC: "Each of the glasses has an LED light to indicate recording. This light flashes on and off while a photo or video is being taken."

"Photos or videos can be saved or shared later. This light cannot be turned off. If someone covers or damages it, the camera stops working."

The company also said that it has blocked search terms and hashtags associated with such videos. These include words like 'rise', 'pick-up artist' and 'cold approach'.

However, Shubnam described LED lights as "just a show-off" done to avoid the companies' responsibilities.

He said, "You are now expected to devote your full attention to seeing and understanding each person's glasses, in order to recognize the small white light in the corner of the glasses."

A report published in The Guardian last month has also raised questions on the claims made about the LED lights installed in Meta's glasses.

According to the report, many online service providers in America turn off the LED light of Meta glasses after taking money.

Meta said it is releasing a new "tamper detection update." This was announced in August.

According to the company, this update is to prevent attempts in which people first start recording and then cover the LED light indicating recording.

It is also worth noting that the AI ​​glasses of companies other than Meta do not have the white light which Meta says is a means of safety.

At present, the price of the cheapest AI glasses from companies other than Meta is around Rs 11 thousand.

The cheapest AI glasses of Meta cost around Rs 22 thousand. Due to this, this technology is continuously becoming accessible to more people.

The exact number of how many people have smart glasses in India is not yet known.

However, the India Smart Glasses Market Review for CY 2025 report by research and consulting organization Cybermedia Research estimates that by 2030, the smart glasses market in India will reach more than 32 lakh units.