Bad news for creeps: Meta just brought a much-needed update to its smart glasses

The popularity of the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses has surged exponentially over the past couple of years, though privacy concerns have always lingered. More recently, Joanna Stern’s extensive reporting revealed that an underground modding community was charging $50 to $100 to disable the LED (which Meta calls the capture LED) on these smart glasses, essentially aiding the covert capture of photos or videos. Meta has now acknowledged some of these issues.

In a blog post that answers common questions about its range of smart glasses, Meta addresses concerns prospective buyers may have. However, later in the post, the company details the steps it has taken to curb unauthorized modification of the smart glasses, including blocking the appearance of adverts related to modding or related services on Facebook Marketplace and other platforms.

“We also take legal action against people or businesses that sell services designed for tampering with the capture LED — both on and off our own platforms,” the company went on to say

It’s worth remembering that Meta already has a software block in place that prevents the camera from working when the capture LED is blocked or covered. However, modders have devised new methods to circumvent this safeguard, and Meta is trying to crack down on those, too. The company says it’s updating its smart glasses to disable the camera if physical tampering is detected.

Meta goes on to say that adding a shutter sound to their smart glasses would be “not practical,” which we can partially understand given the size constraints. The social media giant also leaves the door open for additional privacy features to be built into its hardware in the future, though no specifics were provided.

Steps like these go a long way in easing concerns about being surreptitiously recorded in public spaces. One can only hope that other smart glasses manufacturers can take the cue from Meta and build similar safeguards into their products.

It will be interesting to see how the Samsung Galaxy Glasses will counter some of these potential privacy issues when they’re officially revealed.