The Disturbing Rise of Covert Filming with Smart Glasses
The Independent's journalism is supported by our readers. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn commission.
Meta's latest wearable technology has spawned a concerning new trend: men using smart glasses to secretly film their interactions with women, then uploading the footage to social media platforms. This toxic phenomenon represents a significant invasion of privacy that leaves victims feeling violated and exposed.
Personal Stories of Violation
Kassy Zanjani, a 25-year-old social worker from Vancouver, experienced this firsthand after a night out with friends. While finishing her evening in a fast-food restaurant, she was approached by a man wearing sunglasses who complimented her appearance. "I thought I would just politely reject him and say that I have a boyfriend," she recalls. The man walked away, and Zanjani thought nothing more of the encounter until a week later when a friend forwarded her a video of the entire interaction posted on Instagram.
Unbeknownst to Zanjani, the man had been wearing smart glasses equipped with a hidden camera. "It was very anxiety-provoking being secretly filmed without my awareness or consent," she says. "I think he's purposefully targeting intoxicated women, vulnerable women, to elicit a response from them to use as content."
A Growing Online Phenomenon
Zanjani's experience represents just the tip of the iceberg. Entire social media accounts are dedicated to this type of "pick-up artist" content, where men approach women in public places while covertly recording through sophisticated smart glasses like Meta's Ray-Bans. The technology has evolved to become increasingly unobtrusive, making it difficult for subjects to know they're being filmed until videos have already gone viral.
Oonagh, a woman from Brighton, discovered she had been secretly filmed last June after sunbathing on the beach. A man approached her for her number, which she declined. Weeks later, a friend forwarded her a TikTok video of the encounter that had already accumulated around a million views. "I had no idea it was happening to me," she told the BBC. "It really freaked me out – it made me feel afraid to go out in public."
International Incidents and Legal Limitations
The problem extends beyond UK borders. Millie, a British woman, was secretly filmed via Meta glasses while reading a book on Sydney's Bondi Beach last February. The persistent man who approached her recorded their entire conversation without her knowledge. When a friend in the UK shared the viral TikTok video with her, Millie told Australian current affairs show The Project: "I felt absolutely embarrassed, distraught, upset, crying – I didn't want to leave my bed."
UK law currently allows filming of people in public spaces without their consent, and uploading that footage online remains perfectly legal. When Oonagh reported her incident to Sussex Police, she was told there was nothing they could do. This legal framework leaves victims with little recourse despite the emotional distress caused.
Safety Concerns and Cybersecurity Risks
Rebecca Hitchen, head of policy and campaigns at the End Violence Against Women Coalition (EVAW), highlights significant safety issues: "The safety risks of this are huge, as is the subsequent level of harassment, trolling and doxxing many are subjected to when videos are posted online."
Cybersecurity expert Jake Moore has demonstrated how easily Meta Ray-Bans can be manipulated. He managed to cover the LED light that supposedly indicates recording is taking place, and even rigged the glasses to feed live footage into facial recognition software. "Provided the person in question had some kind of internet presence," Moore explains, "I had access to all kinds of information about them in under a minute."
Corporate Responses and Technological Safeguards
A Meta spokesperson emphasised that their glasses "have an LED light that activates whenever someone captures content, so it's clear to others that the device is recording." They added that their terms of service require users to comply with applicable laws and use the product safely and respectfully.
However, Moore's experiments show how easily these safeguards can be circumvented. Meta acknowledges that "there are small numbers of users who choose to misuse our products" and states they are "dedicated to delivering valuable, safe, and innovative products for people."
Broader Implications and Future Threats
The combination of smart glasses with AI software presents even more disturbing possibilities. Hitchen expresses concern about smart glasses "being used to nudify women and girls in real time." With the increasing accessibility of nudification technology, this represents a significant emerging threat.
Campaigners are calling for the government and online regulator Ofcom to ensure the Online Safety Act can respond to these evolving technological threats. Many victims believe privacy laws need urgent updating in a world where covert filming has become increasingly easy.
A Call for Legal Reform and Personal Vigilance
"I definitely do think they need to be updated," says Zanjani about current privacy laws. "Just because there are things that are technically legal, doesn't mean that it's not completely wrong, immoral and unethical."
Moore suggests that government intervention may be slow due to mass surveillance considerations. "The government would shoot themselves in the foot if they introduced it," he notes, "because they want to be able to use this kind of technology." In the meantime, he recommends adopting a "zero trust" approach when dealing with strangers.
The reality, according to Hitchen, is that "perpetrators will always exploit new technologies to find novel ways to harm women and girls. Smart glasses are therefore not an exciting innovation – for women, they present a new threat to our everyday lives."
