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This year has seen an uptick in popularity for smart glasses—according to IDC, the global smart glasses market has grown year over year in Q1 2026 by 167%, reaching approximately 2.25 million units shipped in a single quarter.That stat comes as no surprise, thanks to the growing popularity of certain models of smart glasses, such as the Ray-Ban Meta (Gen 2), Meta Oakley HSTN, Rokid AI Glasses, and the many, many more options.But with that surge in purchases and recognizability comes several cases of their video-filming feature being used to violate someone’s privacy.A story from Ars Technica has made the rounds regarding smart glasses being used to secretly film people in bathrooms, record someone changing in/out of their clothes and capture footage of a couple’s most intimate moments. Futurism even reported that young boys are getting their hands on smart glasses and using them to harass & bully the young girls in their middle & high schools. Public perception of smart glasses has reached an all-time low, especially with Meta trying to wipe away the title of “pervert glasses” for its product by instituting safer privacy settings.Even so, people are looking for ways to avoid being filmed by people with smart glasses. And they’re finding the sort of methods that aren’t costly at all. Here’s a list of the apps and gadgets that people are using to be aware of smart glasses in their vicinity and protect themselves from being filmed by them.The apps and gadgets that make users aware of smart glasses in their presence
