AI NewsMeta wants its AI glasses to seem less creepy. Its AI strategy says otherwise.

Meta wants its AI glasses to seem less creepy. Its AI strategy says otherwise.

12:30 AM IST · July 9, 2026

Meta’s AI glasses have a growing reputation as acreepy technology. The company hopes to change that opinion by announcing an update that will disable the camera if the LED light that indicates the glasses are recording has been tampered with. The move is seemingly a concession toconsumersentimentthat the glasses aren’t just fun, fashionable accessories, happily promoted by Kylie Jenner, but have serious implications for consumer privacy: They can be abused as surveillance devices. Yet, even as Meta touts the new safeguard this week, the company is also pushing products and features that ask users to surrender more of their privacy to the company. Whether that’straining its AI on your images,enabling AI features using your personal contentunless you opt out, or exploring ways tocontinuously recordor usebiometric facial recognition, Meta’s vision of the future seems to always depend on collecting more of your personal data. In itsblog postabout the new camera safety feature, the company pats itself on the back, noting that “no other kind of camera has done this and we’re proud to lead the industry effort.” However, Meta also admits that the move was necessary because some people had been using tape to cover the LED light, which had already forced Meta to adapt its tech to disable recording when the LED is blocked. Determined, those same AI glasses creeps would then use “sophisticated efforts to modify or destroy the capture LED,” Meta’s announcement explains. In other words, Meta is confirming that some people who use AI glasses have hidden agendas — namely a desire to record situations or people (oftenwomen) without their consent. Despite this, the company is reportedly testing a prototype of AI glasses that would “continuously collect audio while taking photos every few seconds,” sources recently toldFinancial Times. Meta’s blog post about the glasses feature attempts to assuage people’s fears about the devices’ privacy by answering questions like “who can see the photos and videos I take on my glasses?” Meta answers by promising, “You, and only you — unless you choose to share them.” Yet, Meta’sprivacy policyhas explained that any image you share with Meta AIcan be used to train its AI. All the while, the company is facing multipleinvestigationsandlawsuitsover Meta AI glasses privacy violations.One lawsuit comes afterMeta notably canceled a contract with an outsourced tech firm after some of its Kenyan workers alleged they had to view graphic content, likesex, nudity, and people using the toilet, while training Meta’s AI using people’s Meta AI glasses’ videos. These are hardly Meta’s first scrapes with privacy violations or safety measures, either. Arguably, Meta’s reputation on privacy has been tainted for years afternumerousleaksand lost lawsuitsaboutits alleged lack of child safety measuresanddesire for growth at all costs. There arebooks by whistleblowersdocumenting its allegedabuses, not to mention previous large-scale privacy disasters, likethe Cambridge Analytica data scandalandothers. After the 2018 Cambridge Analytica scandal, Meta now insists on itsPrivacy Progress Update page, “Since 2019, we’ve invested significantly in people, products, and technology to continue to evolve our rigorous privacy program.” Still, the company plows forward with what many people would consider privacy-violating ideas. Case in point: On the same day it announced the Meta glasses’ new safeguard, it shared thatMeta AI can now use anyone’s public Instagram photosto make AI images,unless you opt out. It also built features touse Meta AI on images in your Camera Roll you’ve never sharedand implemented suchpoor privacy controlsin its Meta AI app, leading users to essentially dox themselves byrevealing their embarrassing searches. This is the same company thatApple wouldn’t partner with due to privacy concerns, thatrecords its employees’ keystrokes to train its AI, and thatplans to sell targeted ads based on data in your AI chats. So, while an LED safeguard on AI glasses might be a necessary feature, consumers clearly still have many reasons to remain distrustful of how social media will use their images and data, especially in its broader AI plans.