Meta wants to change the public's perception of its smart glasses.
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The small camera installed in Meta's AI smart glasses has become a problem for the company and the public.Photos and videos captured by Meta glasses have proliferated on social media, and not all of them are consensual. Clips of content creators harassing women and recording their reactions covertly have become a trend, raising concerns about privacy."Are you a secret code?" one male content creator asked a woman in an Instagram video. "Because I'm trying to crack you." Some social media users have dubbed Meta's product "pervert glasses."It's all a bad look for Meta. So the company is making moves to get ahead of the negativity. It has recently publicized new privacy settings for its glasses and has launched a PR blitz to explain them.Meta Chief Technology Officer Andrew Bosworth posted an Instagram video on Friday, for example, in which he explained how the smart glasses' hands-free camera works."We designed this camera to be noticed by the people around you, so in every pair of glasses we make, there's a capture LED on the front, and it lights up when someone's taking photos or videos for the gallery," Bosworth said.Bosworth said the camera has no off switch. It stops working if people try to cover or deactivate it."We took this issue all the way across Meta, and we've been taking down content and even whole accounts connected to people misusing the glasses," Bosworth said.Alex Himel, the vice president of wearables at Meta, also attempted to calm nerves on Friday in a Threads post. He said Meta's smart glasses will not allow users to record if the camera's LED light is blocked before or during recording.
