My wife uses Meta glasses because she's blind.
While I'm all for blocking those who film others without consent, this does prevent her from using assistive technology that is helpful for the vision impaired.
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@danyork it's a touchy one as I use mine for hearing assistance from time to time (conversation focus) due to me having impaired hearing, plus they're prescription - technically a disability aid.
@danyork when these glasses are combined with prescription lenses, it will create some weird situations...
@glaurent And from what I have read on several sites, various companies ARE making these available for prescription lenses!
@danyork as they should since there's obviously a pretty large market for those... so whoever creates AR glasses that are privacy oriented is going to win big.
@glaurent Yes, I think it will be interesting to see if someone does create privacy-oriented AR glasses.
For instance, Bloomberg reported recently that Apple is experimenting with different designs for smartglasses - https://techcrunch.com/2026/04/12/apple-reportedly-testing-four-designs-for-upcoming-smart-glasses/
Apple has certainly been talking about privacy in many ways. What will their smartglasses be like? (They also have AI models running locally on an iPhone that could perhaps keep a lot of processing local.)
It's a strange new world!
@danyork Apple are the ones I had in mind in my previous toot. If there's a company that can pull this off, it's them. For all their many shortcomings, one thing they don't screw around with is privacy.
@danyork do they have security cameras inside?
@dd0ul I don’t know, because I didn’t go in the store (I was just walking by).
I think the difference, though, is that if there are security cameras (and again I don’t know) in-store video surveillance is probably not* sent off to a ginormous company like Meta. That seems to be the concern I see coming through in comments.
——
* I don’t know the state of in-store security cameras. The streams COULD be being sent off to equally questionable companies!
Seeing various comments, I will add a couple of points:
- I don’t own any Meta glasses.
- I didn’t go into the store as it had no interest for me. I was just walking by and noticed the sign.
- While the sign focuses on Meta, a quick search shows that many other companies either have or are developing “smart glasses”, including Google, Amazon, Apple, Snap
- There ARE very real accessibility use cases:
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/apr/07/the-life-changing-magic-of-wearing-smartglasses
With privacy concerns… a *lot* for us as a society to sort out!
My own concerns are really around:
- how much recognition / activity is being processed locally (glasses and local smartphone) vs sent off to some system for processing?
- who has access to the data being streamed from the smartglasses?
- what is being done with it?
- is it being fed into a massive facial recognition database?
- is it being used to train AI LLMs?
- how many additional companies have access to the images and videos? (Ex. moderators)
Many more questions like that…
So totally on point Dan.
These glasses are the data funnel for a whole new universe of data abuse (intellectual property theft, privacy violations, tracking and surveillance without warrant or due process)
Once in the hands of authoritarian states or companies alike this data is easy to leverage for good or bad (for example dropping bombs or stopping a virus outbreak)
@danyork Ich frage mich gerade ob es in der Location wohl Videoüberwachung gibt?🤔
@Ihazchaos Eine gute Frage. Ich bin eigentlich gar nicht in den Laden gegangen. Ich bin nur vorbeigegangen.
Aber falls sie doch eine Videoüberwachung hätten ... ich glaube, der Unterschied besteht darin, dass ihr Video wahrscheinlich nicht an ein Unternehmen wie Meta gestreamt wird.
(Noch einmal: Ich habe keine Ahnung, ob sie Videoüberwachung haben.)
@danyork these glasses should simply be made illegal at least in Europe
@danyork Predicted this a number of years ago; "No Smart Glasses" signs, will outsell smart glasses.
@danyork
Wait until they see my new athletic supporter with hidden built-in camera and microphone. The wearer can even choose whether the camera is outward pointing or inward.
My wife uses Meta glasses because she's blind.
While I'm all for blocking those who film others without consent, this does prevent her from using assistive technology that is helpful for the vision impaired.
@davidtheeviloverlord Yes, I can definitely see the benefits from an accessibility point of view. This is one of the things that we as a society will need to grapple with - balancing the benefits of inclusion with the concerns around privacy.
The difference btw your wife who needs the assistance - and some influencer who is streaming to their pages…
… and who or what has access to all the data that is coming from those glasses.
(It would be easier if all processing was local.)
@danyork im blocking a lot of people ITT who dont understand consent 😂
"but my <excuse>"
no, because you want to violate another person's privacy without consent, including long-term knock-on effects of giving inagery of them to fascists.
find another way
Definitely love the push back, I'm just wondering about actual enforcement of such a thing.
@danyork Just wait until Apple combines VisionOS “lite” with those Ray-Ban glasses. It’s going to get much worse for privacy.
@danyork I love it. Metaglass wearers are just the new glassholes. https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Glasshole
@danyork this spying on each other shit is ridiculous
@danyork Basically all places I know don't allow indoor recordings without prior obtained permission and that provision doesn't care about whether it's a TV crew with a big-ass camera, smartphone, or whatever (hidden) cameras…
- Most premises will literally kick people out and ban them if caught.
@danyork I am nauseous but this is wonderful.
I lost a job once because other people taking pictures of me on the job without my permission. Company said no pictures. People kept taking pictures of me. :(
@danyork excellent idea
If anyone cone near me with em on I'll rip them off
I don't want to be recorded without my knowledge
@danyork I am 100% behind this
@danyork back in the day of the Google Glass we called them #Glassholes
