Hold onto your hats.
Some of you won’t like this.
It’s a rant (But let me off as I haven’t had one for a long time)
But as I say in my tagline. ‘A warts and all honest account’ and all that.
Meta glasses.
Yup. Some of you will know what I’m about to spurge out of my system.
I’ve been given some to try by somebody.
I don’t trust them.
I don’t trust some owners of these glasses to use them in a good honest way.
The information it asks you to give permission to on the app so you can use these glasses is alarming.
Access to camera roll, storage, contacts, bluetooth, camera, microphone, location, notifications, motion and fitness.
I know what your gonna say. “You give permissions for apps all the time”
But I don’t. I’m very choosy with what information, contents of my mobile phone and permissions to companies or random apps.
It’s very worthwhile looking through these permissions you give when you download a new app. Sometimes if they are excessive I’ll just uninstall it.
Whilst the content of my mobile phone won’t have any worrying stuff on it, although maybe a vast, eclectic and maybe doubtful music choices (Just over 21gb worth upto now!) It doesn’t sit well with me virtually handing over my information.
So much so, I’ve only been playing podcasts and music on them. They are useful for that, as the weather has been approaching and sometime hitting 30 degrees where I am here in the Northern part of England. My headphones would make me too hot by covering my ears. I’ll be back to my headphones when summer is over.
I haven’t allowed permission for them to read my messages or use the facilities it has to help us visually impaired folk to navigate the world around us. No permission for my social media access.
Not having Wi-Fi permissions to use this while I’m walking around. I can’t get messages or ask Meta anything. It can’t use the AI function. It cannot access my social media platforms. Either for my blog or my personal Facebook page.
That’s my choice. All the useful stuff on the smart glasses would be extremely useful to me to be fair. I think they are a clever piece of tech. Not for me though. I’d rather make my life difficult than give my information to Meta in a constant stream of data whilst they are switched on to the Internet.
It would be extremely helpful to me by asking them to read menus, describe what’s in front of me or using them to ring or message people so I don’t have to try to navigate my phone which is becoming increasingly harder to use.
My reading glasses only do so much. They calm the blur slightly, but don’t fill in the missing spots that look like water droplets, or the black floaters that won’t move out of the way. Don’t correct the wavy sloped lines either.
The camera is on the front as it would be. It’s hard to see. It’s designed to blend in. It should be at least a contrasting colour so people can see they have a camera on them. Far away. It’s undetectable.
I’ve been given the sunglasses version. A lady started talking to me on the bus the other day and I said “Hang on, I’ll just turn my music off” she replied with “Glasses don’t play music” so I explained to her what these were about. People don’t know so people won’t know they are being recorded or photographed.
I can’t see if anyone is filming or taking a photograph. Don’t think anyone with 20/20 vision could either if they aren’t looking exactly where the camera is, exactly when it gives out it’s tiny flash.
I’ve always wanted some fashionable sunglasses that would help my photophobia at least.
But this ain’t it.
Not for me.
I know how useful these are though among my friends in the Blind community. I get it. I really do. Some people love them and find them so helpful. But we’re all different aren’t we.
I’m not going to take photographs or video. This doesn’t sit right with me at all.
To take a quick photo you just press a button on the arm. Easy.
I’ll just listen to my music while the hot weather is here so I’m more comfortable. Then it’s back to my headphones.
I do think these things will be eventually banned. It’s too easy to video and take people’s photos without them knowing.
I already know they must have been used without consent and for dubious purposes at the very least.
The feeling I’m getting is an uneasy one.
I don’t trust at all when someone’s wearing them. I already know I’ve been filmed and photographed without my consent. Finding this out well after the fact.
It is not inherently illegal to film in a public place in the UK. However, filming or recording someone without their knowledge using Ray-Ban Meta glasses can be illegal if it breaches data protection laws (UK GDPR), constitutes harassment, or captures intimate moments in spaces where there is an expectation of privacy.
There has been several arrests and legal actions due to the Meta glasses.
Warrington here in the UK. A man pled guilty to voyeurism after using smart glasses to secretly record something sexual without the womens consent.
A ‘seduction’ coach in Barcelona, Spain, modified his glasses by disabling the recording light on then,. He recorded hundreds of women without their consent. He used this footage in his classes he sold online.
There South Korean men where found to be cheating in a fire safety exam. They were indicted in May of this year (2026) in Gwangju. That’s just dangerous to not actually learn how to keep people safe and avoid a fire or during one.
Multiple women from Kenya and Ghana were secretly filmed during sexual encounters by a Russian National living in Kenya. He later uploaded these online without any of the womens consent.
This will only get worse. These are the people that have been found out. Some won’t be unfortunately.
Smart glasses have already been banned by the New York State courts and some cruise lines (MSC and Royal Caribbean)
State run exams in South Korea have banned them to prevent covert recording and cheating.
Branches like the U.S. Air Force have explicitly banned personnel from wearing smart glasses with photo, video, or AI capabilities. Because Meta’s AI relies on cloud servers, as mentioned above, to process data, there is a risk of data being intercepted or falling outside secure networks.
Independent privacy regulators like France’s CNIL (Commission Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés) in Europe, are actively scrutinizing the devices due to pervasive surveillance concerns. They have warned that smart glasses pose severe surveillance risks, keeping the devices squarely in the crosshairs of strict European privacy laws.
It’s very sad for the Blind community though. Even though they haven’t been made specifically for the Blind, these are a game changer for many of us. But sometimes people spoil it and we can’t have anything nice can we.
One Vision Blog 