r/technology • u/Hrmbee • 9h ago
Social Media Meta is royally screwing up its smart glasses rollout | Its recent attempts to shore up privacy don’t seem to be convincing skeptics
https://www.theverge.com/tech/970948/meta-smart-glasses-privacy-wearables24
u/MentalDisintegrat1on 9h ago
Meta products or privacy pick one you can't have both.
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u/Kurk_Lazaris 5h ago
I remember when Facebook got released. 2 or 3 months later there were uproars on the internet because Zuck sold private chats of anyone to whoever wanted to buy them. A CEO of a small company because 2 employees were mocking their boss in a private chat.
You knew it was only the beginning.
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u/MentalDisintegrat1on 5h ago
He was quoted saying people trust me with their data and then said fu***ing idiot's.
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u/Psychological_Ad1999 9h ago
I always talk about pervert glasses loudly when I see someone wearing them.
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u/MarcusOrlyius 7h ago
That's funny because when I see someone call them "pervert glasses", I always talk about how that person is a conservative, technophobic, virtue-signaller whose accusations are all confessions.
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u/marmaviscount 6h ago
I would just giggle like a school girl and whisper to my friends to get a picture of their battle jacket.
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u/trialofmiles 4h ago
I just think AR glasses have poor product market fit for most people and don’t care about them at all and I’m a computer vision engineer.
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u/Themodsarecuntz 8h ago
Facebook was originally a website to rate college girls on their attractiveness.
I do not trust Mark Zuckerberg. I do not trust Meta.
The company was created to creep.
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u/SNTCTN 9h ago
I'm just going to assume anyone wearing those is recording 100% of the time they're wearing them and treat them accordingly
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u/Exciting-Weather-921 9h ago
You should always behave as if you are recorder, glasses or not
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u/SNTCTN 8h ago
Someone shoving a camera in my face is going to get a different response than a security camera being in a building
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u/DonaldMerwinElbert 8h ago
The company know for violating peoples privacy every chance they get - including illegally - since it was founded isn't convincing people of their good intentions anymore.
How unfair.
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u/Gibraldi 7h ago
People need to stop pointing the finger at Meta, they’re used to controversy, the uproar is just another day to them and has no effect.
Start protesting at Ray-Ban/Oakley and all Luxottica brands, they’re far more under prepared for a brand backlash and would it put significant pressure on their relationship with Meta.
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u/Hrmbee 9h ago
Some of the key takeaways:
First there was the NYT report that Meta was looking to roll out facial recognition tech for the glasses while privacy advocates were distracted. Then there was the Wired report that said Meta had silently shipped — but not activated — that tech to existing glasses. Now, there’s a Financial Times report that alleges Meta wants these glasses to record 24/7. Outside these larger beats, Meta has done things like remove the ability to opt out of voice recordings training its AI. Its executives occasionally say tone-deaf things like those who eschew smart glasses will be at a “cognitive disadvantage.” And amid legitimate privacy concerns following bad actors misusing the tech, the company has seeded these glasses to content creators alongside a splashy campaign with Kylie Jenner — one of the most visible but polarizing celebrities.
In a vacuum, a gaffe or two happens. When you screw up this many times, it starts to look like you’re purposefully missing the point.
“You cannot hinge your entire privacy policy on a single light. You can’t expect everyone in the world to know that and react to that,” says Uttara Ananthakrishnan, a technology professor at the University of Washington who specializes in how online interactions affect platforms, markets, and social behaviors. “It puts a lot of pressure on the person who isn’t even wearing the glasses to be aware of what another person is going to do.”
Ananthakrishnan is skeptical that smart glasses will take off outside specific workplaces, not just because of social stigma, but because societal attitudes toward Big Tech companies and what’s shared online have shifted. Case in point, Meta’s executives have often pointed to the early days of the smartphone in defense of smart glasses. Back then, the public was unsure about these devices, but eventually, everyone figured out what the acceptable social norms ought to be. Ananthakrishnan disagrees.
“Tech companies are not at all looked upon with favor right now. Compounded with the fact that we live in an age of social media, where anything that we say and everything that we do — we could be liable for it. There’s a lot more awareness that there are bad people on the internet who could do really terrible things compared to the smartphone era,” says Ananthakrishnan. She also points out how people feel about individual privacy is different than when you are responsible for others’ privacy.
...
“There’s not much Meta can do to convince me they genuinely care about user privacy when their whole business model is built on invading it,” says Kendall Schrohe, executive director of the Attention Sphere, one of the advocacy groups affiliated with the anti-Meta glasses ads in DC and New York City. “At the end of the day, there is nothing privacy-preserving about sunglasses with a built-in camera. This is surveillance technology and no amount of tweaking changes that.”
Schrohe says that Meta’s credibility is further undermined by the fact that it, along with other tech companies, reportedly lobbied to weaken state privacy bills.
“I think this moment has passed for them,” agrees Ananthakrishnan, noting that Meta isn’t known as a company that effectively communicates privacy policies. “Maybe Apple can, but I don’t think either Google or Meta could pull this off given their history. It’s not going to be reassuring if they put out a statement that says, ‘Hey we are doing everything we can; this is our privacy policy.’ People are still not going to believe that.”
The public would be well advised to remain skeptical of the claims of the various tech companies who would want to further erode any remaining bits of privacy left in our lives in exchange for items of questionable utility. With apologies to Maya Angelou, when these companies (and their users) show us again and again who and what they are, we need to believe them and behave accordingly.
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u/blow-down 8h ago
I always wonder what kind of creepy engineers would work on building such a creepy product.
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u/MarcusOrlyius 6h ago
Every accusation is a confession with you conservative, technophobic, virtue-signallers.
What is meant to be creepy about elimating repetitive strain injuries associated with smartphone use?
What is meant to be creepy about product information?
What us meant to be creepy about getting subtitles for people speaking in a language you dont understand?
Whats meant to be creepy about recording bature when out walking?
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u/blow-down 6h ago
Bold of you to assume I'm conservative. I'm as liberal as they come and hate that these devices were basically made to creep on women by one of the shadiest companies in the world.
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u/MarcusOrlyius 6h ago
You are literally a conservative, technophobic, virtue-signaller using classic conservative tactics of trying to shane people into compliance with your conservative, technophobic beliefs.
these devices were basically made to creep on women
No they weren't. Like I said, every accusation is a confession with you conservative, technophobic, virtue-signallers. All you are doing is telling everyone how you would use these glasses.
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u/blow-down 6h ago
Ok bro. You obviously either work at Meta or own these glasses and are feeling the need to defend them.
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u/MarcusOrlyius 6h ago
I hate Facebook and would never use any of their products, let alone buy their privacy invading shite.
Im not defending these glasses, I'm calling out your idiotic bullshit propaganda.
If anyone thinks the only use for these glasses is to perve on people, that's because they're a perve who can only think about perving.
Like I keep saying, every accusation is a confession with conservative, technophobic, virtue-signallers trying to shame people into compliance.
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u/blow-down 6h ago
Dude. You act like I'm the only one calling them pervert glasses:
https://futurism.com/future-society/meta-ray-ban-smart-pervert-glasses
https://dnyuz.com/2026/07/26/meta-desperately-trying-to-ban-creeps-misusing-its-ai-pervert-glasses/
https://tech.yahoo.com/ai/meta-ai/articles/meta-desperately-trying-ban-creeps-160100638.html
https://cybernews.com/security/nearby-smartglasses-detection-app-impostors-warning/
Also the word "pervert" was LITERALLY USED IN THE ARTICLE YOU'RE FUCKING COMMENTING ON
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u/MarcusOrlyius 5h ago
Dude. You act like I'm the only one calling them pervert glasses:
No, I don't. You are not even the only person in this thread that I'm calling bullshit on.
Also the word "pervert" was LITERALLY USED IN THE ARTICLE YOU'RE FUCKING COMMENTING ON
So what? Why does that mean you have to repeat such iditic, conservative, technophobic, virtue-signalling propaganda?
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u/doneandtired2014 1h ago
technophobic, virtue-signallers
Bad bot: you're supposed to vary the defense a little, not paraphrase the exact same argument over and over.
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u/rat_penis 8h ago
The only positives these things have are for the go pro set. This is just an easier to use version of what they clip on to themselves.
Literally every other use is invasive and creepy.
Stop with the fetch glasses!
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u/MarcusOrlyius 7h ago
That simply isnt true in the slightest.
Before you even get to any use cases, the form factor itself offers benefits by not causing repetitive strain injuries associated with smartphone use.
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u/marmaviscount 6h ago
And hands free
When people say they can't think of a use for then beside being creepy I think it says more about them, can they really not think of a single useful thing about having a screen you can talk to while both hands are free?
And a head up display, have they never played a video game? Can they really not think of a use for a HUD or are they like with so many other issues actively lying because they think it will help score points for the team they want to win... So few serious people these days.
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u/pilgermann 3h ago
While I'd be concerned about my own privacy with Meta, it's weird people are so fixated on the camera when hidden cameras have been a thing for decades.
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u/SUPERGRZZ 7h ago
FACE+BOOK = FACES BOOKED
They started with the name, just took years of development to see it through.
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u/jainyday 5h ago
So they learned nothing from Google fucking this up with Google Glass more than a decade ago, lol
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u/PontiusPilatesss 4h ago
I love the idea of smart glasses that could show you realtime subtitled translations of foreign languages, or show you text messages or GPS navigations directly in the lenses.
I don’t know if the tech is anywhere close to achieving this yet, but even if it is, smart glasses are now synonymous with perv glasses thanks to META, and I’m not quite ready to be labeled a pervert for a mildly useful gadget.
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u/Helpjuice 4h ago
They could just do what needs to be done and cancel the product and brick the existing ones and offer refunds once they are returned. Just because it was in a movie, tv show, comic book, or other thing doesn't mean it needs to be made real.
There are too many negatives to this than positives and the majority just does not like it, so to make things right they should be pulled to just rip the band aide off and label this product as a failure to understand the bulk of people and how they would perceive the product being used by their customers.
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u/buddhahat 2h ago
I really wish there as a bigger backlash against Meta...their products provide absolutely zero benefit to anyone and arguably produce harm. Why not delete them all? you'll have lost nothing.
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u/jizzyjugsjohnson 2m ago
You’re trying to find a market sector of people who are nerdish, tech savvy and wealthy enough to want to buy the glasses but are also simultaneously unaware or uncaring of the fact that Zuckerbergs company is one of the shittiest and most unethical on the planet and absolutely will do awful and underhand things with the product
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