Meta will launch smart glasses without a camera at Connect, The Information reports, as the backlash to the form factor grows.
All of Meta's smart glasses feature a white LED at the end of one temple that flashes when the wearer captures an image and pulses while they're recording. For every model except the failed Ray-Ban Stories from 2021, the glasses will not capture imagery if you try to cover the light, as detected by an ambient light sensor in the LED.
But many regular people still aren't aware that glasses with a camera are even a thing, and because of this, the light can be hard to notice outdoors in daylight. This has led to nefarious wearers recording people with neither their consent nor knowledge that they're on camera.
Worse, a market has cropped up for physically taking the glasses apart to remove the LED. Meta has rolled out firmware updates to disable the camera on glasses where it detects the LED has been tampered with, but as with all such measures, it's a game of cat-and-mouse between Meta and the hackers.
Meta claims that less than 0.1% of its sold smart glasses have been tampered with, but that would still equate to around 10 thousand units, given that the company and its partner EssilorLuxottica have sold over 10 million units now.
Meta's PR campaign to inform the public about the white LED.
The nefarious use of the camera on Meta's smart glasses, whether to make social media video content, for reasons of personal perversion, or, in rare cases, to covertly record police and other authorities, has led to relatively widespread backlash against the entire form factor. Some people now brand them "pervert glasses" or "creep glasses", and even call for them to be banned in law:
Some gyms, including Planet Fitness, ban smart glasses on their premises, regardless of whether they’re recording.