What you need to know
- Meta’s latest smart glasses update stops video recording if someone covers the capture LED after filming begins.
- The update closes a loophole that previously allowed users to start recording first and then cover the LED afterward.
- Meta says several businesses offering capture LED tampering services have already shut down following its changes.
Meta has started rolling out another update for its AI glasses that closes yet another loophole that allowed users to record discreetly while keeping the capture LED covered.
Earlier this year, Meta took several major steps to address privacy concerns surrounding its smart glasses. The company rolled out a mandatory update for its Ray-Ban Meta, Oakley Meta, and Meta AI glasses that prevented the camera from recording if the capture LED had been tampered with or covered.
Meta said the change was designed to make sure people around the wearer can clearly tell whenever the glasses are capturing photos or videos.
Now, the company is rolling out another update that closes a loophole in that system. Meta VP Alex Himel shared on Threads that the new update will stop video recording if someone covers the capture LED after recording has already started.
Until now, users could apparently get around Meta’s protection by starting a recording while the LED was visible and then covering it afterward. With the latest update, doing that will automatically stop the recording.
Himel added that Meta will continue rolling out updates like this to make sure the capture LED can “reliably alert bystanders” whenever photos or videos are being captured and saved to someone’s gallery.
Meta also claims that its efforts against LED tampering are already having a deterrent effect. According to the company, several businesses that previously offered services to disable or cover the capture LED on Meta’s smart glasses have already shut down.
In fact, the company has also launched an awareness campaign explaining what the capture LED actually means. With AI glasses quickly becoming a much bigger product category, Meta says not everyone is familiar with the light or knows when someone is recording. The company now seems to be heavily marketing these new privacy protections in an effort to build back some of that trust.
In addition to these changes, Meta says it has removed accounts from its platforms that engaged in this behavior, alongside posts that provided instructions or advertised services for tampering with the capture LED.
Honestly, it’s pretty sad that things have reached this point. In my opinion, protections against something as obvious as covering the recording light should have been built into these glasses from the beginning. But nonetheless, Meta is finally closing these loopholes, and hopefully, it makes discreet recording with its smart glasses much harder going forward.