Meta sparks privacy fears after unveiling $299 Smart Glasses with hidden cameras: ‘You can now film everyone without them knowing’::These stylish shades may look like a regular pair of Ray-Ban Wayfarers, but they’re actually Meta’s new Smart Glasses, complete with two tiny cameras and speakers implanted in the arms. The wearable tech was unveiled by Mark Zuckerberg Wednesday at the 2023 Meta Connect conference in Menlo Park, California, sparking a frenzy online.
I remember when Google glasses came out, people got assaulted for wearing them
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/san-francisco-woman-says-she-was-attacked-for-wearing-google-glass/
Her Facebook post 💀
“OMG so you’ll never believe this but… I got verbally and physically assaulted and robbed last night in the city, had things thrown at me because of some ---- Google Glass haters,” Slocum posted to Facebook.
A simple solution would be to have a red led that displays when recording like video cameras
The trick is now you can’t tell. Should it be illegal? Heck yes. Will it? “Hmm … technology, so important … innovation… privacy is dead anyway …. terrorism prevention… “
Should it be illegal?
In the US, it’s been long held people do not have the “expectation of privacy” while out in public. One of the major issues that you’ve kinda touched on is how would it be enforced? So are you opposed to all forms of recording? Or is this more focused on a corporation potentially gathering data on people just by being in public where someone is wearing these?
IMO expectation of privacy is valid, but I believe people should also have the right to reasonably know if they’re being recorded. Recording people in public’s one thing if you have your phone out and are waving it around pointing it at people, but it’s a whole other thing if it’s a concealed or otherwise hidden recording device.
I think we’re getting to the point where “expectation of privacy” and “expectation of not being uploaded” need to be separated.
I fully agree with the idea that there should be no expectation of privacy in public, but I also don’t think filming some random person and posting them online should be carte blanche allowed.
In the US, it’s been long held people do not have the “expectation of privacy” while out in public.
At the time it made sense. But laws need to change with the times. In the future you’ll have people wearing these shitty glasses with cameras all around you all day every day cataloging your movements and entering them into giant corporate data centers. Something needs to change.
Also in the US, there has been this bizarre expectation that “if it’s illegal, it will go away”, which is how we have this shitty War on (some) Drugs, “assault” “weapon” bans, and people thinking that we have to completely outlaw AI.
The tech is here. It’s going to be legal. We just have to figure out how to deal with it.
Why should it be illegal?
It’s perfectly legal to photograph strangers in public. You’re in public you have no reasonable expectation of privacy.
I don’t see people assaulting CCTV cameras for instance.
Sure some weirdos might I use it for nefarious reasons but if it didn’t exist they would still be weirdos using something else.
People wear their glasses everywhere, including a variety of places where there is an expectation of privacy or where it is otherwise prohibited to record. Places where you would not be allowed to hold up your phone or camera and take photos.
The introduction of tech that makes it impossible to distinguish between someone minding their own business and someone recording you demands a change to the legal framework. It doesn’t make sense to hold to laws that were written for an entirely different scenario.
I don’t see people assaulting CCTV cameras for instance
I’ve seen that fairly often, particularly around political protests, and I’ve never seen a CCTV camera in a public bathroom, locker room, etc.
This tech is an inevitability and the potential legitimate uses are too valuable to ban it outright. But that doesn’t mean it should be treated exactly like a highly-visible camera or cell phone.
It’s perfectly legal to photograph strangers in public.
Depends on your legislation.
Here it’s the other way round.
Pretty sure there are at least some limitations to that. In a public toilet for instance…
Ok, now you and I are in a private place. Say, a bar. How do I know you’re not recording me?
How would banning these be enforceable though? They are only going to get more discreet, they will eventually appear completely indistinguishable from regular glasses.
There are certain ways to detect cameras, such as monitoring for infrared, but that would not work for all camera tech and could be hard to triangulate to exact people in crowded areas. There are also ways to detect electronic devices on a person but doing so could quickly become just as invasive in other ways.
You don’t need the ban to be perfect. Especially if you go after manufacturers, not users. Make it harder for people to do uncouth things. Accessibility is a huge driver of people using things. You might not be able to stop everyone, but you can stop the majority of people.
I think some cameras will “pop out” on your screen if you take a picture of them, right?
What a shitty future ahead of us. “Why are you taking a picture of me?!” “Because you’re wearing some suspicious glasses and I want to make sure that you are not recording me. Yup. There they are.”
Edit: well, after seeing some pictures, you can still tell that the cameras are there. But you have to be looking for them, which is still shitty.
That’s only if it sends infrared signal (for example it has night vision). I don’t think anything will show up with these.
“They trust me — dumb fucks,” says Zuckerberg
Always good to keep in mind
A quick search on Amazon for “spy camera” finds a bunch of devices small enough to easily conceal inside clothing, built in to pens, and built in to watches. A search for “spy camera glasses” finds exactly that, and most of them are well under $300. We’re already well into the era of being able to film everyone without them knowing.
They aren’t directly connected to a social network and promoted with vast marketing resources however.
I remember playing with one of these about 10 years ago that looked like a car key fob, it recorded somewhat subpar footage in a weird format to a microSD card. A neat novelty but not very practical to use unless you really had a need to do covert surveillance of something, which most people don’t.
However if it’s made to be effortless to push watchable footage to social media, and people are heavily encouraged and incentivised to do so and it’s a different proposition.
People aren’t a fan of those existing either, but not much you can do about it. At least, you can assume that it’s only a tiny fraction of people who own these devices, let alone carry them around, ready to go.
With these glasses, more people will own them and will have them ready to go, on their nose.
Hidden cameras? They’ve got big ol fuckin cameras on them and apparently a red LED that lights up when in use lol. It’d be easier to secretly film someone by pretending you’re texting on your phone. More ragebait.
You seriously think it wouldn’t be trivial to disable the LED?
And by the time you notice the LED you’ve already been filmed.
Buddy, have you been on Aliexpress recently? It’s trivial to wire tiny cameras all over your body if you really wanted.
Not that it matters, I can point an 8K cinema camera at you in public, and you don’t legally get a say.
Not that it matters, I can point an 8K cinema camera at you in public, and you don’t legally get a say.
This isn’t the case everywhere. Some places have laws with likeness rights if you try to use the footage in commercial productions.
Two-party consent states also attach legal consequences to secret voice recordings.
This is strictly legally speaking. People can and do violate the law.
Again you can record already without any led while “reading your messages” with your phone. Like I feel they did the expected and necessary.
Plus is not like there isn’t already available pens, USB chargers, watches or whatever they can come up secret cameras, like if the intention was to secretly record somebody they wouldn’t go with this ones disabling the led… plenty of better less suspicious alternatives.
It took me a 3 second google search to find that it doesn’t work with the LED covered.
By the time you notice someone’s phone is out you’ve already been filmed. That’s status quo these days, it isn’t any creepier than every single person walking around with a camera in their pocket.
I imagine it wouldn’t take long until someone finds a way to disable that LED.
Exactly. The pearl-clutching over smart glasses is so misplaced. You’re already being recorded constantly in public, what’s the big deal?
I miss when CCTV was a world ending privacy concern. Its gotten so much worse in the last decade.
Perhaps one of the biggest advances in human knowledge is in how to make ultra-slick slippy-slopes for abstract ideas. It seems to me that the most common reason people give for accepting some new bullshit is that we already have some other bullshit which is worse. But it is the accumulation of additional bullshit that has gotten us into this mess. I’m referring mostly to sacrifices of privacy; and to loss of freedom of use in products and software; the ownership being replaced with ongoing fees and subscriptions. That kind of thing.
