Meta’s answer to the “pervert glasses” problem was a small light. It switches on when the camera records, to warn anyone nearby. A sticker costing a couple of dollars switches it off.
Engadget’s Karissa Bell tested the workarounds now on sale, cheap LED-blocking stickers marketed as “privacy” accessories. One kit cost $16.99 for a dozen. On her second-generation Ray-Ban Meta glasses, worn outside, the recording light was undetectable. It never tripped Meta’s tamper warning.
That is the clever, ugly part. Meta pushed a mandatory update that disables the camera if the LED is physically broken. The stickers do not break it. They leak just enough light to fool the sensor, so no alarm fires, and it is hard to trace who is hiding the light.
The crackdown was already failing
The stickers arrive weeks after Meta announced a ban on people filming themselves harassing strangers with the glasses. It is not biting. An Oligarch Watch investigation, surfaced by Futurism, still found hundreds of such videos live on Meta’s platforms.
