Smart glasses are 'an invasion of privacy' - Meta's are selling better than ever

The BBC reports that Meta's Ray-Ban smart glasses, which command over 80% of the AI/smart glasses market with 7 million units sold, are proliferating despite documented privacy abuses—including nonconsensual filming of women in public spaces, lawsuits from users unaware their videos were being reviewed by humans, and growing misuse for pranks and harassment. The reporting is rigorous, grounded in named sources (David Harris from UC Berkeley, privacy attorney David Kessler, Mark Zuckerberg, and affected users), specific incidents (women secretly recorded at beaches and shops, Kenyan workers exposed to graphic content), and documented legal challenges, with Meta's response included via company spokesman Tracy Clayton. While independent search results corroborate the BBC's framing and add context about competing products from Apple, Snap, and Google entering the market, the article notably frames the privacy invasion as systemic rather than isolated—citing predictions of 100 million users within years and noting Meta's planned addition of facial recognition capabilities. Watch for: regulatory action or legislation addressing smart glasses recording in public spaces; outcomes of pending lawsuits against Meta; and whether competing products from major tech firms adopt stronger privacy safeguards or replicate Meta's approach.