On the tube, sitting opposite you, someone is wearing a pair of Ray-Ban. Nothing out of the ordinary. Except that a small light comes on, discreetly, at the corner of the frame.
That person may be filming you.
Glasses that see, listen and think
Meta's smart glasses, made with the Franco-Italian group EssilorLuxottica, which owns Ray-Ban, dominate this market by a wide margin: around three quarters of global sales. They contain a camera, microphones and speakers. You can take photos, film, listen to music, and ask Meta's AI assistant questions about what you are looking at.
Last month, Meta integrated Muse into them, its personal agent, capable of acting on your behalf, the very one that, according to a recent study, says it collects the most types of data among the assistants.
What a German authority found
In September, the Hamburg data protection authority published the final report of its technical examination of these glasses. It notes a striking point: the software components needed for a facial recognition function are already present, even though they are not activated. It also stresses that these glasses pose serious transparency problems for the people being filmed, who often do not know that they are.
According to Swedish newspapers, employees of a subcontractor in Kenya, tasked with annotating data to train the AI, may also have been able to see private images, sometimes intimate ones, filmed by users.
The fear: being recognised by anyone
What worries people most is facial recognition. Glasses capable of putting a name to the face of every stranger passed in the street would put an end to a discreet but essential freedom: that of going unnoticed in a crowd.
This is not science fiction. Back in 2024, two Harvard students showed that by combining these glasses with search tools available to anyone, they could find the name and address of passers-by in a matter of moments. In the United States, more than 75 civil liberties organisations have asked Meta to rule out any facial recognition in its glasses. Meta says no such function has been launched.
In France, everyone has rights over their own image: publishing a photo or video in which you are recognisable in principle requires your consent, except in cases such as news reporting or a crowd in which no one is singled out. And recording a person's words spoken in a private setting without their consent is an offence punishable under the Criminal Code. Being filmed in the street is not in itself prohibited, but what is then done with those images is regulated.
How to react
Learn to recognise them. A slightly thick frame, two small holes on either side of the lenses, and a light that comes on during recording. Some users unfortunately manage to hide that light.
Do not hesitate to ask. If you think you are being filmed, you can simply ask the person to stop. In a private place, such as a business, a doctor's surgery or a gym, the person in charge can also ban them.
If you wear them, let the people around you know when you are filming, and check the privacy settings of the associated app: some sharing of photos and videos with the service can be turned off.
What we take away
For centuries, the anonymity of the crowd protected every one of us without us giving it a thought. Nobody knew who you were as you walked down a street.
Glasses that see, listen and, perhaps one day, recognise, could put an end to that invisible protection. Now is the time to decide collectively whether we want to keep it.