Facebook unveiled its new Ray-Ban smart sunglasses that can take photos and videos of the wearer’s surroundings and send them to a smartphone on Thursday.
And they’re already raising some privacy questions.
Buzzfeed’s Katie Notopoulos took the glasses for a test drive, and while doing so, said she taped over the LED light on the front of the glasses designed to alert bystanders that the device is recording.
When she told Alex Himel, the vice president of AR at Facebook Reality Labs, about this, he said that was a violation of its terms of service. The LED light was added to the new device after Facebook consulted privacy groups, at least one of which is funded by Facebook, as The New York Times’ Ryan Mac noted.
As Notopoulos noted, this isn’t a brand new issue in the world of camera glasses. Many of these types of glasses are already equipped with hidden cameras on the market, like ones listed on Amazon for around $50.
But her experience calls into question exactly how Facebook plans to monitor if wearers honor the terms of service and refrain from covering up the light to hide when they’re recording. Facebook did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment on how the company plans to enforce the rule.
Smartphones, iPads, and many other devices don’t come with signals that tell people they’re recording, and these products are ubiquitous. But they’re also less discreet than a pair of glasses, which look like a normal pair of Ray-Bans, that can secretly snap footage of you and instantly send to the wearer’s iPhone.
Facebook has faced pushback over how it protects – or fails to protect – user privacy from its bevy of apps and services. That criticism has especially mounted since 2016 when its involvement with the data firm Cambridge Analytica forever changed how the public perceives the tech giant.
The UK company was able to harvest the data of more than 87 million Facebook users for political ad targeting, and critics lambasted the social media company for not keeping its users’ information secure.
How the company handles any new device rollout’s potential effect on people’s privacy will likely always be in the spotlight.
I’m not on Facebook. I was at one time, but have been off it for years now. I don’t trust Facebook!
We have surpassed the Orwell prediction! This is bad and it will get worse with demorats getting involved!
Unfortunately, you don’t have to be on Fakebook to be able to be recorded by these things, nor is no longer having an account a means of preventing them from tracking everything you do. They’ve appointed themselves the arbitors of acceptable speech, and believe they have the right to do anything that they want to, just because they are capable of doing so.
Personally, I had a harder time kicking my ten year social media habit than I did kicking a 34 year smoking habit, but I’ve beat them both, and won’t go back. Maybe of more people did the same, they’d lose some of that unacceptable power they weild against us all.
If my email address won’t be published, then WHY do you need it, or my name for that matter? Facebook and Zuckerberg are getting way out of hand. He is violating all kinds of rules. Would Never buy those kind of glasses, ever. I know there are many STUPID people that will, because they think there’s no harm in it, but unfortunately, there’s a lot of harm. Guess you don’t have to worry about Big Brother anymore, but you DO have to worry about Zuckerberg.
Well, it’s time to start wearing signal interruption devices..a new market boon I see coming. lol When cops came out with radar – we came out with radar detection. When they got laser, we got laser scramblers. hahaha It’s the way of the world. Since the IRS wants to track transactions, it’s time to go back to cash and petition our representatives to put more laws on the IRS guidelines to return them to neutral.
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