Tell the FTC: Protect the Public from Covert Recording by Smart Glasses
Federal Trade Commission
The seemingly stylish glasses that Meta have created initially held the purpose of revolutionizing content by taking away the ability for someone to hold a camera and capture media. Many collaborations with Meta have taken place, including with Ray-Ban and more recently, Kylie Jenner. Influencers have flocked over this invention to help with creating innovative photo and video content for their brands, but it is not without its major flaws.
Many individuals and organizations have held concern that these glasses cause covert recordings of unaware patrons, safety risks for women, privacy issues, and data collection misuse with Meta’s skeptical background. Jenner’s Meta Glasses in particular are being labeled as “surveillance chic”, where a fashionable accessory is able to, according to the Financial Times, ““continuously record audio while taking photos every few seconds” with no visual indication. Women have notably been the victim of nonconsensual recordings, as an instance occurred where Toluwa Omitowoju was videoed by a man wearing the glasses. It was brought to her attention by distant friends that the video had amassed hundreds of thousands of view online, where she stated “I had no say”. Concerning privacy and data collection, images and videos taken by the glasses are AI processed when being uploaded to Meta’s cloud servers. This is done without the consent of the user and raises issues of how the data is used outside of what the user wanted to record.
The overall consensus the general public has about Meta Glasses is unfavorable, showing that this technology created by a controversial corporation can be disastrous when used by dangerous individuals. By signing this petition, our team will forward it to the Federal Trade Commission to request a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. The misuse of Meta glasses are a deceptive practice and clear privacy violation, which go against FTC regulations. A ban on the glasses has already taken place in New York as courts in the state since legal proceedings were being videoed. We want to take action by ensuring punishments for fraudulent privacy claims, no tampering can be done to secretly film people, and court orders can be made to delete personal data. Meta has proven ever since its conception it is not a trustworthy company, seeing it recently being sued in a nationwide case lying about how safe it's social media platforms are. Join us and sign our petition to urge nationwide change and regulations for this harmful surveillance technology.
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To:
Federal Trade Commission
From:
[Your Name]
We urge the Federal Trade Commission to investigate the privacy and consumer-protection risks posed by AI-enabled smart glasses, including Meta’s Ray-Ban Meta and Oakley Meta glasses, and to initiate a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking establishing safeguards for this technology.
Smart glasses combine cameras, microphones, artificial intelligence, and cloud connectivity in an ordinary-looking wearable device. Unlike a conventional camera or smartphone, they can record people without those people realizing that recording is taking place. This creates serious risks of covert surveillance, harassment, stalking, and nonconsensual dissemination of images and video.
These risks are not hypothetical. Toluwa Omitowoju was recorded without her knowledge by a man wearing Meta smart glasses, and the resulting video was viewed by hundreds of thousands of people online. She said, “I had no say” in being recorded or having the video distributed.
The technology also raises concerns about data collection and AI processing. Media reports indicate that content captured by Meta’s glasses can be uploaded to Meta’s cloud services for AI processing, raising questions about what information is collected, how it is used and retained, and what control individuals have over recordings of themselves.
We believe consumers and members of the public should be protected from deceptive or inadequate privacy representations and from the circumvention of safeguards intended to indicate when recording is occurring.
We therefore ask the FTC to:
1. Investigate the privacy and consumer-protection implications of AI-enabled smart glasses.
2. Initiate a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking establishing minimum privacy and transparency requirements for wearable recording devices.
3. Require clear, readily perceptible indications whenever audio, photographs, or video are being recorded, together with safeguards against disabling or concealing those indications.
4. Require meaningful disclosure concerning the collection, AI processing, retention, and use of recordings and other personal data.
5. Provide effective remedies and penalties for deceptive privacy claims and violations of these requirements.
We support innovation in wearable technology. But innovation should not come at the cost of making covert surveillance an ordinary feature of everyday life. We urge the FTC to act before these devices become even more widespread.