Meta Is Finally Making Its Smart Glasses Stop Recording When You Cover the Light

Covertly recording people with smart glasses without their permission has become a growing concern. When Meta launched its first-generation Ray-Ban Stories, the company added a recording LED to let people nearby know when the glasses were capturing photos or videos.

But users soon found a way around it: simply covering the recording light with tape could allow the glasses to look like an ordinary pair of glasses while still recording.

Meta is now moving to close that loophole. The company says its AI glasses will disable the camera when they detect that the capture LED has been blocked or physically tampered with. Meta has also been improving its ability to detect attempts to modify or destroy the LED.

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TechloyOgbonda Chivumnovu

Why Meta is making the change

The reasoning is fairly simple. As AI glasses become more popular, concerns about people using them to secretly record others are growing.

There have been cases of people using smart glasses to covertly film and harass others in public. Back in February, Techloy reported on Russian man Vladislav Liulkov, who had been accused by the governments of Kenya and Ghana of secretly recording women without their consent, editing the clips, and posting them online.

Instagram has also taken action against creators who post this type of content, but the problem has continued.

There is another problem Meta is trying to address: a market for accessories and services designed to bypass the recording light.