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Meta’s camera-killing update
Meta says its smart glasses will automatically disable the camera if users tamper with or destroy the white “capture LED,” a blinking white light on the edge of the frame that alerts others the wearer is using the glasses' camera.
“Smart glasses with a camera are inherently a privacy nightmare, but Meta’s Ray-Ban glasses (and now its self-branded ones) have a privacy light to indicate when that camera is active”
In a blog post announced July 7, Meta said the safety feature detects when a user has “tampered with or covered the wearable's capture LED,” and if the light is no longer visible the glasses will disable use of the camera until the device detects the light is visible again.
UploadVR reports Meta is improving its smart glasses’ ability to detect privacy LED tampering and disable the camera via a mandatory firmware update, with the company saying it is “updating the glasses to disable the camera if they detect the LED was physically tampered with or destroyed.”
The update is described as rolling out across Meta’s smart glasses lineup, including second-generation Ray-Ban Meta devices, and it is also tied to Meta’s effort to remove ads and posts advertising LED modification and to ban accounts on Meta platforms.
Modders and the workaround
Tech coverage leading up to the update described a market for physically taking the glasses apart and modifying them to remove the LED and sensor, with UploadVR citing veteran tech journalist Joanna Stern’s reporting last month.
UploadVR says some owners used these services and products to record people without their consent, and it notes branding like “pervert glasses” or “creep glasses” alongside calls for them to be banned in law.
Engadget reports Meta’s FAQ explains the capture LED “blinks briefly when the user takes a photo and continues blinking as long as they're recording,” and says the camera will automatically be disabled if it detects the capture LED has been blocked.
Engadget also says Meta admitted it has seen some people “go beyond using tape to sophisticated efforts to modify or destroy the capture LED,” and that it is now updating devices to disable the camera if the capture LED was physically tampered with or destroyed.
Privacy pressure and enforcement
Meta’s response is paired with platform enforcement, as Mashable says the company is “going after third-party sellers who advertise devices with disabled LEDs,” including banning accounts on Meta platforms.
“There's been a lot of social blowback against camera-enabled smart glasses this year, particularly those from Facebook-maker Meta”
PCMag reports the update is mandatory and is rolling out to all users, and it adds that Meta will remove posts across its apps that promote or advertise capture-light tampering services, with account bans and legal action “may follow.”
TechRadar frames the change as a fix for modders who can disable or damage the light and its mechanisms without getting flagged, and it quotes a Meta spokesperson saying the company was looking into ways to disable this workaround.
Looking beyond the immediate LED fix, TechRadar also points to the broader privacy debate around camera-enabled smart glasses, while Road to VR says Meta’s privacy-focused update is meant to follow the release of the company’s cheaper Meta Glasses and that it is rolling out a mandatory v26 update to all Meta Ray-Ban, Meta Oakley and its new $300 Meta Glasses.
