Other governments have taken notice of the privacy implications of wearables like Meta’s glasses, raising concerns about more advanced capabilities they may have in the near future. On Tuesday, Democratic senators Ron Wyden, Ed Markey, and Jeff Merkley addressed an open letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg about the company’s reported plans to integrate face-recognition technology into these devices.
“Given Meta’s vast data collections, its smart glasses could capture images of thousands of people without their knowledge or consent and then instantly link those faces to names, workplaces, or personal profiles, creating serious risks of stalking, harassment, and targeted intimidation,” the lawmakers wrote. They noted “how easily real-time identification technologies can be repurposed to discourage political expression, target vulnerable communities, and chill lawful dissent.” The trio demanded Meta detail its biometric data practices and explain how it could hope to obtain “express affirmative consent” from every bystander whose face happens to be captured through a user’s glasses.
Meanwhile, communities are organizing to protect themselves from harassment by self-styled pickup artists with Meta glasses. Earlier this month, a redditor posted on a forum for residents of Vancouver, British Columbia, that a man was frequenting the clubbing district downtown at night to record, via smart glasses, his techniques for chatting with women. “In many of his videos women are very uncomfortable and are clearly rejecting his advances and saying no,” the redditor wrote. The videos appear on the man’s Instagram account, @vibrophone, which has some 12,000 followers, identifies him by the first name Sherif, and advertises him as a “rizz” coach. Other videos show him “curling” the women he meets, lifting them horizontally to his chest like barbells. (The owner of the account did not respond to a request for comment.)
On multiple Reddit threads, Vancouver locals have shared their frustration that Sherif might be monetizing his content, though it’s not clear whether he is. One objective of such channels seems to be to attract opportunities for cross-promotional branding: Kaghazi, for example, has a link on his profile for a “dating assistant” AI app, while John offers a promo code for the nicotine product Nic Nac.
One woman, who spoke with WIRED on condition of anonymity so that he would not have her personal information, says that Sherif approached her near an arts and recreation center last fall.
After stopping, he asked her, “Who let the dogs out?” He repeated the question when she expressed confusion. “And when I still paused, he did that little hand motion people do to mean ‘continue,’ and said, ‘Who, who, who?’” she says. “I laughed a little and kept walking. I’m a millenial, I obviously know that song, but the interaction was so corny, I just blanked. I remember noticing that he had those camera glasses and thinking ‘Oh, he probably just filmed that.’”
She later saw the recent Reddit posts about him. While he didn’t upload a video of her, she’s nonetheless disturbed by the other Meta Ray-Ban clips. “They seem predatory,” she says. “I have no expectation of privacy when out in public. But if a person is approaching strangers with a hidden camera and interacting with them without disclosing that they are filming for content, that’s a problem.”
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