Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses

Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses (renamed from Ray-Ban Stories) are smart glasses designed, developed and manufactured by Meta and EssilorLuxottica.

First released in September 2021, the glasses comprise two cameras, open-ear speakers, a microphone, and touchpad.

In September 2023, Meta announced the second generation of the glasses, renaming them to Meta Ray-Ban Smart Glasses. The new glasses feature a Qualcomm Snapdragon AR1 Gen1 processor, 12 MP cameras, improved audio, livestreaming to Facebook and Instagram, and Meta AI.

Risks and harms 🛑

Touted as having been 'designed for privacy', Facebook and Ray-Ban's Stories smart glasses have been primarily designed with the privacy of their users in mind rather than the people in their sights, according to several high-profile journalists, commentators, and privacy advocates.

Furthermore, critics argued, photos and videos of everyone in the sights of Stories wearers could easily and quickly be used, manipulated or otherwise abused, for multiple purposes, including impersonation, fraud, and reputational attacks.

Concerns have also been raised by regulators about the visibility of the LED indicator which lights when the user is taking a video, and whether this constitutes an effective way of putting other people on notice that they are being recorded.

News, commentary, analysis 🗞️

• https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/09/15/1035785/why-facebook-ray-ban-stories-metaverse/

• https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/katienotopoulos/facebook-is-making-camera-glasses-ha-ha-oh-no

• https://www.inputmag.com/tech/ray-ban-stories-aka-facebook-glasses-are-a-privacy-nightmare

• https://www.ft.com/content/f06f8102-aaf7-44fc-9988-74ad4d728209

• https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/facebook-smart-glasses-ray-ban-stories-review-familiar/

• https://theconversation.com/ray-ban-stories-let-you-wear-facebook-on-your-face-but-why-would-you-want-to-167708

• https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/opinion/2021/09/10/facebooks-new-ray-ban-smart-glasses-turn-a-blind-eye-to-privacy.html

• https://techcrunch.com/2021/09/20/facebook-warned-over-very-small-indicator-led-on-smart-glasses-as-eu-dpas-flag-privacy-concerns/

• https://ww.itpro.co.uk/security/privacy/360936/irish-dpc-facebook-smart-glasses-privacy-concerns