Meta Removes Video Filmed on Meta Glasses for Violating Policy on Filming People With Meta Glasses
The glasses remain available from $349, bundled with a policy explaining why you may not share what they record.
MENLO PARK, Calif. — Meta removed a video this week that had been recorded on its own camera glasses, explaining that the footage violated the company's policy against filming people without their consent, which is also the principal use case of the product.
The video, made by a European comedian, showed him wearing the glasses into one of the company's offices and asking employees how they felt about being recorded by a pair of glasses. According to the company's notice, the employees were "subjected to the core product experience without having opted in."
"We take the privacy of the people in our videos extremely seriously, when they are us," said a Meta spokesperson. "When they are not us, we have a different team, and that team is at lunch."
The company said it had reviewed the footage using a content-moderation model that has watched 1.4 billion hours of video captured by smart glasses, and that the model had flagged the clip within 0.3 seconds for "harassment of a person with a lanyard."
Product managers said the incident had generated useful feedback. "Users have been asking for a way to know when they are being recorded by the glasses," said Tobias Ekwueme-Halvorsen, a wearables analyst. "Meta has now demonstrated that the way you know is that you work at Meta."
Privacy advocates noted that the same glasses are sold with a small recording light, and that the comedian had shown the light could be covered with a piece of tape. Meta said it was investigating the tape.
At press time, the company had released a software update that turns the recording light on automatically whenever the glasses detect a Meta badge in frame.