France opened criminal cases over smart glasses used to film women without consent, and with Meta’s Ray-Ban frames dominating 76 percent of the market, this is the moment when the “they’re just glasses” design philosophy meets a real-world accountability problem. And I wonder if that is part of why Meta’s new Smart Glasses will NOT have cameras but instead have more microphones (I just covered that announcement).
This is a real privacy danger that any of these Gen 2 AI wearable companies will have to face. You can build in protections, but users will always find a way to circumvent those guardrails. I’m not surprised that an EU country is leading the way on these privacy concerns either.
I expect more investigations like this to come, especially as more Gen 2 AI wearables hit the market.