Meta’s smart glasses have a new look and the same privacy problem

Meta may have finally found a way to make smart glasses look normal. That might be the problem.

On June 23, Meta announced a new line of AI-powered Meta Glasses, starting at $299. The collection includes three frame styles: Meta Adventurer, Meta Fury, and Meta Glasses by Kylie, a slim oval frame designed in collaboration with Kylie Jenner.

Like Meta’s Ray-Ban and Oakley smart glasses, the new frames are meant to make AI wearable, stylish, and a little less like something you would only see at a tech conference. They can take photos, record video, play audio, handle calls, and let users interact with Meta AI hands-free. In other words, Meta is selling them as everyday eyewear that can also document what you see. That’s exactly where the issue lies.

Online, users have been debating the new glasses with the usual mix of alarm, jokes, defensiveness, and rage. Some people have argued that the backlash ignores genuinely useful features, especially for creators, travelers, parents, and blind or low-vision users.

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Others have been more blunt, saying the glasses make it too easy for strangers to record people without their knowledge and then turn those interactions into content.

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On a phone, recording usually requires a visible gesture. Someone has to pull it out, aim it, and hold it up. Smart glasses remove most of that very difficult process (sarcasm, detected). A person can be talking to you, looking at you, or sitting across from you on the subway while the camera is already built into their frames.

Meta’s glasses do include a small LED indicator that lights up when photos or videos are being captured, but people also argue that the light can be easy to miss, especially in bright settings or crowded spaces.

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That concern is no longer just hypothetical. In February 2026, three women reported they were secretly recorded by men wearing smart glasses during staged pickup-style interactions, then posted online without consent. One woman said she was approached in a Washington, D.C., airport lounge and later discovered that the man had filmed her with smart glasses. Another said she was filmed in a grocery store and found the clip online, where it had already been viewed millions of times.

There have also been concerns in more intimate settings. In September 2025, a woman went viral after saying she realized during a Brazilian wax at a Manhattan European Wax Center that her esthetician was wearing Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses.

The employee reportedly said the glasses were not charged and were prescription, and there was no evidence that the appointment was recorded. Still, the reaction made clear that the presence of a wearable camera can be enough to make people feel exposed, especially in situations where privacy is part of the service.

Drama has had real digital ramifications. In December 2025, TikTokker Anthony Festa went viral after posting about arriving for a 6 a.m. Solidcore class on Nov. 30 and finding the studio empty, with no instructor present. He filmed himself on his Meta glasses doing a makeshift private workout, and the situation escalated after he alleged staff pressured him to take the video down.

While initially about the workout class, the situation brought up a recurring question: if wearable cameras make it easy to document everything in real time, what responsibility do public spaces have to make their rules clear before someone starts filming?

The recording light is now becoming a legal issue, too. On June 4, 2026, Pennsylvania state Rep. Joe Ciresi introduced a bill that would require smart glasses and other wearable recording devices to include a visual indicator when recording audio or video.

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This is aimed at a real loophole in the current smart-glasses setup. On TikTok, retailers sell “ghost dot” stickers to block or dim the recording light, and similar LED-blocking stickers have appeared on retail sites.

The bill is part of a wider wave of scrutiny around where smart glasses could go next. In February, the New York Times reported that Meta had been exploring facial recognition for its smart glasses through an internal feature called “Name Tag,” which could allow a wearer to identify people and receive information about them through Meta AI (Meta has not launched that feature for consumers). U.S. Sens. Ed Markey of Massachusetts, Ron Wyden of Oregon, and Jeff Merkley of Oregon sent a letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in March demanding more information about these reported plans, and in May, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton launched an investigation into Meta AI Glasses over concerns.

And in June, the Verge reported that people in at least 30 states were offering to remove the recording light from Ray-Ban Meta glasses, including a New Jersey modder who said he performed the service multiple times a week. Meta has responded, saying tampering with the light violates its rules and that it removes listings for those services, but the reporting has given lawmakers a concrete example of why a tiny indicator light may not be enough on its own.

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Smart glasses have been a hard sell. Google Glass became a punchline more than a decade ago, and even Meta’s more recent Ray-Ban and Oakley glasses have had to fight the same basic problem: people do not always love the idea of a camera sitting on someone else’s face. Reuters reported in November of last year that smart-glasses sales were growing, but that mainstream shoppers still had concerns about privacy, comfort, and price.

Meta seems to know that. Its newest rollout isn’t just about making the glasses cheaper — it’s about making them look like something people might actually want to wear, even before they think about the technology inside. By tapping Kylie as the face of this much chicer version, Meta’s launch event pulled in a fashion-and-internet crowd that included stylist Law Roach, creator Nara Smith, and DJ Peggy Gou.

The glasses have since popped up on everyone from F1 WAGs to influencers — perhaps for fashion, perhaps as a gift from Meta — though not without the inevitable internet backlash that accompanies every such sighting.

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As lawmakers rush to catch up, Meta is simultaneously making its smart glasses cheaper, more fashionable, and more ordinary. But the more “ordinary” this tech looks, the more concerns it brings.

​Mashable