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Meta’s smart glasses are earning a reputation for being a privacy nightmare—to put it mildly. While the company is taking steps to make it harder to record people without their knowledge, it’s still not possible to prevent being recorded. So, what can you do if you think someone is using their glasses to record you without your consent?
Know your rights if someone is recording you
Knowing whether or not someone is legally allowed to record you won’t necessarily protect you from being recorded, but it’s a solid foundation to start with. And determining whether someone can record you generally boils down to two basic questions: Do you have a reasonable expectation of privacy? And do you live in a one- or two-party consent state?
In the United States, a reasonable expectation of privacy is a legal principle that can help determine whether you have a right not to be recorded (in other jurisdictions, this concept may have a different name or criteria). The classic example of this would be standing outside on the street, but pointing a camera inside a person’s window. Even though the person recording outside is technically “in public,” the subject being recorded has a reasonable expectation that being inside their home entitles them to privacy—yes, even if the window is open.
When it comes to smart glasses, this principle applies as it would with any other camera. If someone tries to record you in a place where you have a reasonable expectation of privacy—your home, hotel room, or a bathroom, for example—then they are legally in the wrong.
Within places that have a reasonable expectation of privacy, some places in the U.S. require that both parties to a conversation consent to it being recorded, while others require only one party to consent. The key here is that in all cases, the person recording must be a participant in the conversation. A third party listening in by pointing a camera or a microphone at you never has a right to record you in a place where you can reasonably expect privacy.
This also means that even if the person wearing smart glasses is part of the conversation, recording you still might be illegal if you’re in a two-party consent state. Obviously, none of this applies when you’re in public places, or even on private property that’s open to the public like a restaurant or store, but it’s usually worth knowing your rights.
Just because you have a legal right to privacy doesn’t mean you can prevent someone from recording you, but it can put you in a better position to have footage of you taken down or taking legal action against it in the future. And if you control the space where someone is recording you—say, inside your own home—you can always have them removed.
Appeal to private authorities
Your legal rights only matter so much in the moment if you’re faced with someone who won’t take no for an answer. Take this incident earlier this year, where a man filmed himself accosting British comedian Diane Morgan in the middle of a shoot. While the film crew in this instance obviously didn’t have a legal right to privacy, and probably did not have a legal right to remove the intruder, the person filming also clearly wasn’t deterred by potentially incurring a harassment charge. So, what can you do if someone simply won’t relent?
In public-accessible spaces, your best bet is likely to find whoever owns or manages the space you’re in. You might not have the ability to stop someone from recording you inside a Starbucks, but the manager can kick them out if they’re causing a problem. Some places and organizations have started banning the use of recording-capable glasses altogether—so it's worth familiarizing yourself with the policies of the local businesses where you hang out.
If you think someone’s recording you in public, it can be helpful to know if there’s a local bar or bookstore that bans these glasses. Even if it’s just to have a place to duck into if someone is recording you nearby, or to know who to ask for help to get someone to stop bothering you.
More tips to prevent being recorded
Getting someone to stop recording or observing you entirely is the ideal, but if that’s not an option, you might have to resort to some more creative solutions. Including, but not limited to the following:
Try the Nearby Glasses app. This open-source application is available for Android and iOS, and can potentially identify nearby smart glasses. It uses Bluetooth data from nearby devices to try to determine if any smart glasses are in your vicinity. It’s not 100% reliable, but it can be a helpful indicator. It should also go without saying, but knowing that someone nearby has smart glasses doesn’t mean you know who is wearing them. So be careful before approaching someone that you’re not sure is wearing them.
Watch for signs of tampering on the notification LED. Meta’s smart glasses are supposed to have an LED that alerts people around the user that a recording is in progress. A recent update is supposed to ensure that recording will cease if the LED is covered, but it’s still possible to tamper with the glasses to prevent this. It’s not great if someone is recording you without your permission, but if you see someone who appears to have visibly modified their smart glasses to prevent people from noticing the recording, then it’s extra important to take action.
Don’t bother playing Disney music. One common tip you’ll find is to play copyrighted music from a particularly litigious company. The idea here is that, if the offending recorder tries to upload the footage to a site like YouTube or TikTok, then it could potentially get removed on copyright grounds.
This isn’t really how those platforms often work. Content can get taken down due to a copyright claim, but just as often it can either get demonetized or simply muted. And in those cases, the copyright system isn’t really going to help you. Playing music to drown out a conversation might not hurt, but it’s better to rely on your own privacy complaints to take down videos, rather than hoping Disney will save you.
