If Users Conceal the Recording Light on Smart Glasses, Meta Says It Will Disable the Camera

Meta is listening to the criticism of its smart glasses and says it will disable the camera if the user attempts to conceal the blinking LED light that indicates the device is recording.

While the smart glasses have been a rare win for Meta’s maligned Reality Labs division, the wearable technology has come under fire for being used by so-called “glassholes” who surreptitiously record people on the street, often men recording women.

In a Meta article published yesterday, the company addressed the issue head-on, promising that anyone who attempts to cover the white light that blinks while the glasses are recording will find their camera disabled.

“Beginning with our second generation of glasses, the camera is automatically disabled if we detect that the capture LED has been blocked,” says Meta. “No photos or videos can be taken until we detect that the light is unblocked.”

A search for “Meta glasses LED light” brings up a lot of guides on how to remove or conceal it. For $30, users can easily buy a cover from TikTok Shop, and there are more sophisticated services by modders who hack the glasses.

“Since the introduction of this safeguard, we’ve seen some people go beyond using tape to sophisticated efforts to modify or destroy the capture LED,” Meta says.

“We are continuously improving our ability to detect tampering, and now we’re updating the glasses to disable the camera if they detect the LED was physically tampered with or destroyed. No other kind of camera has done this and we’re proud to lead the industry forward.”

Meta says it is actively removing ads, posts, and Marketplace listings that promote LED light tampering across its platforms, threatening to ban accounts and go even further than that.

“We also take legal action against people or businesses that sell services designed for tampering with the capture LED — both on and off our own platforms,” the company adds.

Meta taking action against tampering will be welcome news to many people. One woman named Oonagh from the U.K. revealed how she was filmed by a man without her knowledge and consent in a public area. The interaction of the man asking for her phone number was published to TikTok, where it received at least one million views. Oonagh was sent the video and says she became panicked as she read the comments — many of which were abusive.

Meta recently launched a cheaper line of its AI smart glasses.

Image credits: Meta