- A new update arrives for Meta’s smart glasses
- This should prevent modders from turning off the light that lets people know you’re using the camera.
- Meta also targets modders on and off its platform
Last month, we shared details of reports that Meta Glasses were being modified to bypass privacy protections and turn them into secret spy glasses. Meta has now revealed that it will update the glasses’ software to detect if their light has been tampered with (or destroyed) to prevent recording.
Every time you take a photo or video with the Meta Glasses, a white light appears on the front of the glasses to let people around you know that you are filming.
For creeps looking to be more secretive with their recordings, this light is a hindrance, but Meta has mandated more basic tamper-proof features since its launch. In other words, any attempt to use the camera while the light is blocked, for example by a piece of tape, would not be permitted. The problem is that modders have found ways to open the glasses and disable or damage the light and its mechanisms that prevent it from showing, without being reported by the system – meaning you can use the camera as you normally would, but without anyone else knowing.
This is (to put it bluntly) not good, and when the reports were published, a Meta spokesperson told me that the company was looking at ways to disable this workaround.
They also explained that Meta is working hard to eliminate ads for these types of services – some of which have appeared on its own Facebook Marketplace platform – with its latest announcement explaining that this means banning accounts, removing listings and taking legal action against people or companies who tamper with its technology.
Beyond the details of updating software to prevent tampering, Meta’s entire article focuses on privacy and, most importantly, how Meta keeps you and others safe.
Thanks to the misuse of its technology, the growing notoriety of these gadgets, and reports that entrepreneurs are seeing images and recorded videos that Meta Glasses users may not have fully realized they could see, Meta and smart glasses makers have faced major privacy questions.
With this article, Meta seems to answer a lot of questions, although we will have to wait and see if this can convince users – or if they might be tempted by the rise of smart glasses without a camera.
The only way is without a camera?
Even Realities, another smart glasses company, recently announced that it had raised $150 million in investment at a $1 billion valuation – which isn’t too bad for a company that didn’t launch its first XR gadget until 2024.
Instead of Meta’s camera-focused approach, Even Realities opted for a display-focused approach. Information is displayed visually in green text and basic diagrams to provide features such as AI guidance, navigation instructions, or speech appearing on a virtual teleprompter. Its specifications also lack speakers, although this is not the case for all glasses of this type.
Losing the camera is, of course, a major privacy win for some, as the glasses have no way of seeing something they shouldn’t or being used for spying.
The thing is, I think these kinds of glasses are pretty awful. After testing a few at home, the ones without a camera just aren’t worth carrying.
Smart glasses, while increasingly popular, are in their infancy, which means that in the world of technology you can expect to pay a reasonable amount for relatively limited functionality – that’s the price you pay for being an early adopter. This is especially true, I found, for these XR glasses in particular, because while they can offer several tools such as navigation, on-screen translations, a teleprompter, and notification pop-ups, their usefulness is quite limited.
How often do you need a teleprompter? Or one-way translation tools? In the latter case, since this type of glasses often requires you to rely on your phone to set up the translation function or access other features, you might as well turn to something like Google Translate, which has chat modes that allow two people to talk and see translations through a single device.
The software I’ve found for this type of spec can also be pretty terrible in terms of slowness, inaccuracies, and crashes – and if, as someone who professionally tests smart glasses, I have problems, I can’t imagine what less technical people must think.
Additionally, green text can be hard to make out on a clear day if you’re outside, making on-screen instructions difficult to see.
While admittedly more limited in functionality, the Meta Glasses and similar smart specs appear to offer much better value for money. From Meta in particular, the software is generally very reliable and, more broadly, the ability to take a photo at any time – whether to capture a moment or to provide context to an AI’s response – very often proves useful.
Even though it’s not as good as my phone’s camera, the ability to record a memory, hands-free and without being disconnected from the moment, is utterly delightful.
Yes, there are privacy issues that need to be addressed more formally, because even without the ability to record privately, there’s still plenty of room for malicious people to harass people with this kind of gadget, but if you want a pair of smart glasses right now, there’s simply no better option.
Follow TechRadar on Google News And add us as your favorite source to get our news, reviews and expert opinions in your feeds.
