Meta Smart Glasses Face Privacy Backlash As Courtroom Bans Spread

AI-enabled smart glasses are moving closer to ordinary eyewear while raising a basic privacy problem: people nearby may not know when they are being recorded.

Yahoo Tech described sustained public backlash against the camera-equipped devices, including Philadelphia's ban on smart glasses in First Judicial District courthouses and a statewide New York courtroom restriction scheduled to begin July 20.

Meta has pushed the category most aggressively.

The Facebook parent sold 7 million pairs of smart glasses in 2025 and launched additional lower-priced models this year, including a Kylie Jenner-branded version.

Jenner's promotion has not erased the products' surveillance-focused image.

Some potential users say they are reluctant to wear the glasses in public because they fear being viewed as perverts, while singer Lorde told a Madrid Mad Cool festival audience earlier this month, "f— the glasses.

Don't get the glasses.

Not sexy."

The devices are face-worn computers with cameras, microphones and artificial intelligence.

Meta and Snap make the glasses that interact with the surrounding world, unlike more niche augmented-reality glasses from companies such as Xreal, which are designed mainly for watching media or playing virtual-reality-style games.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has described the glasses as central to the company's future.

During a January earnings call, he compared their potential adoption with the shift from flip phones to smartphones and said it was difficult to imagine a world in several years where most glasses were not AI glasses.

Meta's newest line also includes a model that uses Kylie Jenner's voice as its AI assistant.

The immediate concern is recording without consent.

Women have reported being filmed without their knowledge by men wearing smart glasses, with some footage later posted online.

Meta's glasses include an indicator light that turns on during recording, and the company says altering or obstructing the light disables the camera.

Some users, however, have found ways to make recording less visible.

Facial recognition has added another layer of concern.

Wired reported that Meta had added NameTag facial-recognition code for smart glasses to its Meta AI mobile app, although the code was not activated.

The New York Times reported on NameTag in February, describing it as an internal feature name for identifying people captured by the cameras and creating a "faceprint." The Information reported in May 2025 that Meta had renewed work on the technology.

Meta disputed the Wired report, saying it had previously acknowledged exploring such features and that nothing had been shipped to consumers.

The company says Meta Glasses offer settings to control what users share, along with safeguards intended to respect the privacy of people nearby.

Meta did not reply to Yahoo Tech's request for comment.

Thorin Klosowski, a senior security and privacy activist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said the central issue for users is whether they trust Meta with everything they record and send to the company.

Cloud-submitted recordings may potentially be reviewed by a person for AI-training purposes, meaning material captured by the glasses may not remain confined to the device.

Klosowski advises buyers to use the glasses for a clear purpose, such as recording a YouTube tutorial or repairing a car, and to avoid public spaces where others may be uncomfortable even when no recording is taking place.

A parent filming a child's soccer practice could explain the reason to other parents, but people nearby may still object.

The indicator light can also be difficult for bystanders to notice, particularly outdoors in bright light, while fashion-oriented designs make newer glasses less visibly conspicuous than Google Glass.

The policy problem extends beyond glasses.

Pins, rings and potential cameras in the next iteration of Apple's AirPods could make recording harder to detect.

Klosowski said legislation is difficult because broad restrictions could also affect legitimate public recording, including cellphone video that has helped document encounters with law enforcement.

Zuckerberg's forecast also carries a recent complication: Meta poured some $80 billion over five years into his metaverse vision before pulling back from that effort earlier this year.

Smart glasses have not yet reached mainstream acceptance.

Outdoor hobbyists may value a more wearable GoPro-like camera for activities such as mountain biking, but reviews cited in the interview repeatedly described friends and family as uncomfortable around the devices.

That reaction remains a practical limit on how far the face-worn computers can spread.