Meta Glasses: if you tamper with the privacy LED, the camera turns off
In recent hours, Meta announced an update that disables the camera on its smart glasses when the privacy LED is tampered with or destroyed. This small light indicator serves to signal to those nearby that the camera is active, and from this moment on, its integrity becomes a necessary condition for taking a photo or recording a video.
The update is mandatory for all users and is already being rolled out. In parallel, the company states that it is working to remove ads, posts, and listings on Marketplace for services that alter the glasses to disable the light, and does not rule out legal action against those involved.
From adhesive tape to a pierced LED
Starting from the second generation, the glasses already blocked the camera if the LED was covered with adhesive tape or other objects, prompting the user to uncover it. However, several modders had found shortcuts, physically piercing the light or removing it altogether to record without any visible signal. The new intervention specifically closes this avenue.
Meta reconstructs the evolution of its countermeasures: "Since the second generation of our glasses, the camera is automatically disabled if we detect that the capture LED has been covered. Since we introduced this protection, we've seen some people push beyond adhesive tape, with sophisticated attempts to modify or destroy the LED, and now we’re updating the glasses to disable the camera if they detect that the LED has been physically tampered with or destroyed." The company also claims a milestone, stating that "no other type of camera has ever done this."
Under pressure on multiple fronts
The crackdown comes at a time of significant pressure. The glasses are at the center of a backlash that has been ongoing for months, fueled by reports of malicious individuals secretly recording and harassing young women, and by growing mistrust in public places. The State of New York will ban camera glasses in all courtrooms starting July 20, following similar measures adopted by courts in Philadelphia and some cruise lines in common areas.
On the facial recognition front, public outcry has already made a mark: in June, Meta removed from its app the code for a face identification feature, internally called NameTag, after alarms raised by dozens of civil rights organizations, including ACLU and Electronic Frontier Foundation. This is a matter we have previously addressed.
That such a countermeasure was forthcoming was hinted at by Alex Himel, VP of wearable devices at Meta, to The Verge a few weeks ago during the launch of the new Meta Glasses without Ray-Ban branding and at a lower price. Even then, Himel admitted that the company was aware of increasing misuse, parallel to the growing proliferation of the glasses.
However, there is a limit that the update does not touch. The light indicator remains poorly visible in many lighting conditions, and its utility as a warning for those caught in the frame depends on how much it is actually noticed. The software block makes it more difficult to bypass the indicator, but obviously, its visibility for those around does not change.