Meta fixes smart glasses privacy loophole and launches awareness campaign

What happened

• Meta is fixing a loophole that allowed smart glasses wearers to covertly record others.
• The fix ensures that the camera stops working if the front-facing LED light is covered during a recording, according to Alex Himel, Meta’s VP of augmented reality.
• Previously, some wearers could bypass restrictions by covering the LED light after starting a recording.
• This update follows an earlier fix where the camera would turn off if the capture light was physically tampered with.

Why it matters for me

Meta’s smart glasses had sparked privacy concerns because some wearers recorded others without consent and filmed social media ‘pranks.’ These issues, along with reports about facial recognition features, led to a global campaign against the device.

What to remember

• Meta is spreading awareness about its LED capture light through a new marketing campaign in communities where glasses sales are popular.
• A billboard in Los Angeles shows the message: “The camera lets you capture the moment. The light lets everyone around you know when you do.”
• A video shared by Meta explains that the capture LED signals when photos or videos are being captured, and ‘no light’ means ‘no capture.’

Source: Original article

Source: www.theverge.com