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Smart glasses are deeply creepy. Why are celebrities like Kylie Jenner endorsing them?
A Guardian opinion piece argues that Meta's AI-powered smart glasses, now endorsed by celebrities such as Kylie Jenner, pose serious risks to privacy and personal safety, particularly for women. Writer Tayo Bero contends that despite Meta's promised safeguards, the devices make covert recording alarmingly easy, enabling "manfluencer" content in which men film interactions with women and share them online without consent, and warns the technology's wider surveillance potential is even more troubling.
The article cites cases reported to the BBC and CNN of women being secretly recorded, including one who was allegedly blackmailed over footage and another filmed without consent during a sexual encounter. Meta says its glasses feature an LED recording indicator with tamper-detection technology, but CNN reported that women interviewed did not recall seeing it activated, and social media creators have circulated methods to bypass the light. The piece also references a Wired investigation revealing Meta embedded facial-recognition technology, internally called "NameTag", into its AI app to identify people captured by the glasses' camera, raising further alarm about state and corporate surveillance.
In short
- Opinion piece criticises celebrity-endorsed Meta smart glasses over privacy risks
- Women report covert filming, harassment and non-consensual footage sharing online
- Meta's "NameTag" facial-recognition feature raises added surveillance concerns
Steelman: both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
Smart glasses are fundamentally tools no more intrinsically problematic than the smartphones billions already carry, which enable covert recording equally easily. The proper response to misuse is enforcing existing consent laws, cultural change around privacy norms, and improved technological safeguards, not restricting devices with genuine benefits for accessibility and productivity. Celebrities endorse these glasses recognising their utility; banning innovation because some people misuse tools sets a troubling precedent when the issue is human behaviour, not the technology itself.
The case against
Smart glasses create a distinctive privacy threat through seamless covertness in ordinary eyewear where victims have no visible warning—documented cases show Meta's safeguards like LED indicators are ineffective or unnoticed, enabling systematic non-consensual intimate footage and harassment. Rather than rely on law enforcement that moves slowly whilst victims suffer lasting trauma, device design that prevents misuse protects women better than prosecuting perpetrators afterward. Facial recognition compounds these dangers by enabling mass identification, creating infrastructure for surveillance at scale alongside individual privacy violation.
Explained simply
Meta, the technology company behind Facebook, has released smart glasses that record video through lenses worn on the face. These glasses use artificial intelligence and are gaining popularity partly because high-profile celebrities including Kylie Jenner have publicly endorsed them. Their endorsements carry weight because celebrities influence what consumers want to buy.
The primary concern is that the glasses make it simple for someone to film people without their knowledge or permission. There have been reported instances of women being secretly recorded, with footage sometimes shared online or used for blackmail. Meta includes a light that indicates when the glasses are recording, but investigations suggest this indicator may not be visible to those being filmed, and some users have found ways to disable it.
A broader issue is that the glasses can identify people from their appearance through facial-recognition technology built into Meta's associated app. This raises concerns not only about privacy in everyday life, but also about how the technology could enable surveillance on a larger scale by individuals, organisations and governments. These factors have sparked debate about whether the technology's benefits justify its risks.
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