Here’s How to Protect Your Privacy If Someone Films You With Glasses.
Meta smart glasses are gaining a reputation as a privacy nightmare, to put it mildly . While the company is taking steps to make it difficult to record conversations without the user’s knowledge , preventing them remains impossible. So what should you do if you suspect someone is using your glasses to record your conversations without your consent?
Know your rights if someone is recording you.
Knowing whether someone has the legal right to record you won’t necessarily protect you from being recorded, but it’s a solid starting point. Determining whether someone can record you usually comes down to two key questions: Do you have a reasonable expectation of privacy? And do you live in a state that requires one or both parties to consent?
In the United States, a reasonable expectation of privacy is a legal principle that can help determine whether you have the right not to be recorded (in other jurisdictions, this concept may have a different name or criteria). A classic example is when you’re standing outside but pointing a camera inside a window. Even if the person filming outside is technically “in a public place,” the person being filmed has a reasonable expectation that being inside their home entitles them to privacy—even if the window is open.
This principle applies to smart glasses just as it does to any other camera. If someone tries to record you in a place where you have a reasonable expectation of privacy—for example, at home, in a hotel room, or in the bathroom—then they are legally in the wrong.
In places where there is a reasonable expectation of privacy, some places in the US require the consent of both parties to a conversation to record it, while others require the consent of only one party. The key point here is that in all cases, the person recording must be a participant in the conversation. A third party eavesdropping on you by pointing a camera or microphone at you is never permitted to record you in a place where you have a reasonable expectation of privacy.
This also means that even if a person wearing smart glasses is participating in a conversation, recording your conversation may still be illegal if you’re in a state that requires consent from both parties. Obviously, this doesn’t apply to public spaces or even private property open to the public, such as a restaurant or store, but it’s generally worth knowing your rights.
Having a legal right to privacy doesn’t mean you can prevent your life from being recorded, but it may increase your chances of having the recording removed or suing in the future. And if you control the space where you’re being recorded—for example, your own home—you can always have the recording removed.
Appeal to private authorities
Your legal rights only matter when you’re confronted with someone who won’t take no for an answer. Take, for example, the incident earlier this year, when a man filmed himself groping British comedian Diane Morgan during a shoot . While the film crew in this case clearly had no legal right to privacy and likely no legal right to remove the offender, the man filming the video was clearly not deterred by the potential threat of harassment charges. So what do you do when someone simply won’t budge?
In public places, it’s probably best to contact the owner or manager of the location where you’re located. You may not be able to stop someone from filming you inside a Starbucks, but the manager may remove them if they’re causing a problem. Some locations and businesses have begun banning the use of video-recording glasses entirely, so it’s worth checking the rules of the local establishments where you’re spending time.
If you suspect you’re being filmed in public, it’s helpful to know if there’s a bar or bookstore in your area that bans these glasses. Even if it’s just to have a place to hide if someone is filming you nearby, or to know who to call for help so they can stop bothering you.
Additional tips on how to avoid being recorded.
Ideally, you should ask someone to stop recording or monitoring you entirely, but if that’s not possible, you may have to resort to more creative solutions. These may include, but are not limited to:
Try the Nearby Glasses app . This open-source app is available for Android and iOS and can potentially detect nearby smart glasses. It uses Bluetooth data from nearby devices to try to determine whether smart glasses are nearby. It’s not 100% reliable, but it can be a useful indicator. It also goes without saying that knowing someone nearby has smart glasses doesn’t mean you know who’s wearing them. So, be cautious before approaching anyone you’re unsure about.
Watch for signs of tampering with the notification LED. Meta smart glasses should have an LED that alerts others that recording is in progress. A recent update ensures that recording stops if the LED is covered , but it’s still possible to modify the glasses to prevent this. It’s not ideal if someone is recording you without your permission, but if you see someone has clearly modified their smart glasses to hide recordings, taking action is especially important.
Avoid playing music from Disney cartoons. One common piece of advice is to play copyrighted music from companies prone to litigation. The idea is that if an infringer tries to upload a video to sites like YouTube or TikTok, it could be removed for copyright infringement.
In reality, these platforms often don’t work that way. Content can be removed for copyright infringement, but it can also be stripped of monetization or simply disabled. And in such cases, the copyright system won’t do much to help. Playing music to drown out conversation might not hurt, but it’s better to rely on your own privacy complaints to get a video removed than to hope Disney will save you.