Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses raise fears of unwanted surveillance, scamming as more people use emerging tech

A new generation of smart glasses could be used to video, photograph and even scam strangers who have no idea they are under surveillance. That’s the warning from cyber experts, who say the wearable technology’s transition from a bulky and obvious fashion crime to a largely undetectable surveillance tool poses new risks. But rather than calling on the Federal Government to intervene with tighter laws, they say the answer is education and establishing “new social norms”. The warnings stem from the release of Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses: a pair of glasses that can take high-quality videos and photographs. The glasses have already caused controversy after some women had public interactions with men recorded and posted online by influencers who claimed to be teaching men how to flirt. One Sydney woman said she did not realise her chat with a stranger, who approached her in a restaurant, was being recorded until she was alerted to the video online — by which time it had five million views. The man who filmed her has an Instagram account filled with videos of similar encounters and claims to be helping men find dates. “We should be concerned with the fact that there’s no request for consent and it’s very hard to know that you’re being recorded,” Edith Cowan University technology ethics expert Sean Goltz said. “It’s one of those examples where technology is certainly ahead of laws . . . Companies like Meta aren’t going to take responsibility for any of that. They do say people should respect the privacy of others . . . but that’s where their responsibility ends.” Professor of internet studies at Curtin University Tama Leaver said unlike smart glasses such as Google Glass, Meta’s version looked like an ordinary pair of glasses. “The trick that Meta has here is lots of companies are trying smart glasses but what has made the difference is that the design factor has not come from Meta, they’re from Ray-Ban and Ray-Ban know how to make glasses that don’t look like crap,” he said. The glasses have been available in Australia since last year and cost just under $500. Heavily promoted by Meta — including in a Super Bowl ad starring Hollywood heavyweights Chris Hemsworth and Chris Pratt — the glasses are seen as a precursor to future smart glasses that aim to replace a smartphone. Images and videos — up to three minutes long — can be recorded via two small cameras on either side of the glasses. They can also be used to take phone calls and play music. Experts say the glasses’ built-in light, which is supposed to alert people they are being recorded, could be easily thwarted. A New York Times experiment found a reporter could take hundreds of photos without anyone realising. Smart glasses have already been banned from ATAR exams and the experts who spoke to The Sunday Times said they would likely be banned more broadly from schools, in the way that many schools banned use of mobile phones. Bully Zero chief executive Janet Grima wants to see that happen. She fears the glasses could be used to record students and post footage online. “Our primary concern is the potential for smart glasses to enable covert recording, increasing the risk of bullying, harassment, and privacy violations,” she said. “This could include capturing images or videos without consent, which could then be misused for cyberbullying, doxxing, or other harmful behaviours. Young people may be vulnerable to having their moments exploited online.” Dr Goltz said the glasses could also potentially be used in scams. Last year two Harvard University students connected their Meta smart glasses to facial recognition software and found they could identify strangers in real time via their personal information online. Professor Leaver said he believed it would be social norms, rather than laws, that helped crack down on how the glasses were used. “Hopefully good practice prevails but there will be times when it doesn’t,” he said. “I think if you’re a parent and you see someone wearing them at school, I think it would be reasonable to ask them not to . . . it’s establishing new social norms. “People with glasses are going to say ‘it’s OK they’re not recording’ but that’s not enough for me.” Dr Goltz said education, like technology literacy classes for young people, was the way to tackle the new technology — not legislation. “The only way to deal with these things is values and education,” he said. “It’s not a matter of technology, it’s a matter of values and education and this is something we’re not doing.” A spokesman for the eSafety Commissioner said when it comes to filming someone in public, “just because you can doesn’t mean you should”. He said smart glasses had the potential to be used by domestic abusers to surveill and control their partners, to cyberbully others and for image-based abuse. “Unfortunately, we do anticipate that as immersive technological products become more widely used, this will ultimately give rise to a range of online safety issues, unless the proper guardrails are embedded in at the design phase,” he said. “While a range of AR glasses use a lighted beacon on the frames to indicate filming is in progress, we have already seen examples where malign actors have effectively obscured the beacon while continuing to film.” Report image based abuse to www.esafety.gov.au. Call 1800RESPECT for domestic violence help.

Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses raise fears of unwanted surveillance, scamming as more people use emerging tech

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