Meta and Ray-Ban’s ‘pervert glasses’ prompt criminal complaint in Germany

13 Aug 2026, 15:56 by https://euobserver.com/author/gaia-neiman/ · EUobserver

“Image based sexual abuse is nothing new, but Ray-Ban Meta glasses make it so much easier, because they cannot be distinguished from normal very popular glasses,” said German non-profit HateAid, in lieu of the risk concealable cameras pose for women (Source: TechCrunch)

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By Gaia Neiman,
Brussels
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They look like normal glasses, but there is a minuscule camera that is capturing what is in the eyes of the beholder – and transferring it directly onto social media.

A German NGO has launched legal action against Meta on Saturday (8 August), as well as several optical retail chains selling Meta’s smart glasses, for alleged interference with privacy rights.

Digital rights non-profit HateAid has filed a criminal complaint calling for a sales ban on Meta’s Ray-Bans glasses in Germany for covert filming and eavesdropping, despite being indistinguishable from standard specs.

Meta’s glasses also have a running Meta app that can collect own videos to train its AI.

Nicknamed ‘pervert glasses,’ Meta and its partner EssilorLuxottica, RayBan’s mother brand, expanded its line again in June, with celebrity partnerships and three new Meta glasses frames starting at $299 (€259).

The group’s legal complaint argues that Mark Zuckerberg’s company is in breach of Germany’s Telecommunications Digital Services Data Protection Act, while arguing that it’s also “yet another strategic tool to cement its data monopoly and Meta’s market power,” said co-CEO of the Berlin-based NGO Anna-Lena von Hodenberg.

Germany is not the only one to have taken action against the social media giant.

English and Welsh courts banned the use of the glasses on Tuesday (11 August), joining a number of restaurants, theatres, and pubs in the UK in preventing the entry of Meta’s ‘spyware’.