Meta faces lawsuit over privacy practices in AI glasses

Human reviewers allegedly watched footage of users changing, using bathrooms

Rivals remove cameras, add manual recording as safeguards

Race to capture $600 billion-plus smartphone market

Smart glasses by Mustard Glasses are displayed at CES 2025, the world's largest consumer electronics and IT trade show, in Las Vegas. [Reuters]
Smart glasses by Mustard Glasses are displayed at CES 2025, the world's largest consumer electronics and IT trade show, in Las Vegas. [Reuters]

AI-powered smart glasses and wearables are emerging as next-generation devices to succeed the smartphone — and with them, growing concerns about privacy. Because the devices are worn throughout daily life with cameras and microphones always active, they can capture not only the wearer's surroundings but also the faces and conversations of bystanders.

As Meta, Samsung Electronics, OpenAI and other technology companies accelerate their push into the AI wearables market, privacy disputes are spreading across the United States and Europe, Reuters reported Saturday (local time).

The leading product in the space is Meta's Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses. Resembling ordinary eyewear, the device combines a camera, microphone and AI to let users photograph what they see and retrieve information about their surroundings. Meta views the glasses as a core device for realizing its "personal superintelligence" strategy.

The problem is that people being filmed have no easy way of knowing it. Unlike a smartphone, which must be pointed at a subject, smart glasses record simply by looking — making covert capture far harder to detect.

The controversy has moved into the courts. American consumers filed a lawsuit against Meta and Luxottica, the company that operates Ray-Ban, alleging that the glasses' privacy practices misled consumers.

The lawsuit also claims that human reviewers responsible for AI training and related tasks directly viewed some footage captured by the glasses and uploaded to Meta's servers. Plaintiffs alleged that the reviewed material included images of people changing clothes, using bathrooms and handling financial information.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg wears the Meta Ray-Ban Display smart glasses while presenting new products at the "Meta Connect" event at the company's headquarters in Menlo Park, California, on Sept. 17 last year. [Reuters]
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg wears the Meta Ray-Ban Display smart glasses while presenting new products at the "Meta Connect" event at the company's headquarters in Menlo Park, California, on Sept. 17 last year. [Reuters]

Meta disputes the claims and says it will contest them in court. The company said it has built in safeguards, including an indicator light that cannot be turned off while recording and a mechanism that disables the camera if the light is covered or tampered with.

Privacy concerns are also shaping how AI wearables are designed. Shenzhen-based startup Even Realities removed the camera from its smart glasses entirely. The company launched the camera-free G1 in 2024, followed by the G2 last year, and reached a valuation of $1 billion in July.

US startup Pocket took a different approach, requiring users to press a button to begin recording. About 170,000 units are in use eight months after launch. AI recorder maker Plaud similarly requires manual activation and notifies nearby people via an indicator light or audio alert. Plaud has about 2.5 million users.

Samsung Electronics is also pursuing entry into the smart glasses market through partnerships with Gentle Monster, Warby Parker and others. Samsung believes that as AI takes on more tasks, security and user control will become increasingly important.

OpenAI is also preparing new AI devices. CEO Sam Altman said a device aware of its user's surroundings would struggle to earn trust if it sent all data to cloud servers, and stressed the need for on-device AI that processes data locally.

Behind the tech industry's push into wearables is the global smartphone market, valued at more than $600 billion. If smart glasses, AI pins or similar devices can replicate smartphone functions, companies stand to claim an early lead in what could become the next major computing platform.

The challenge, however, is structural: AI wearables become more useful the more ambient data they collect, but that same data collection increases the risk of privacy violations. "The important thing is making sure people know they're being recorded and consent to it," IDC analyst Jitesh Ubrani said.


sjy@heraldcorp.com