Meta addresses ‘pervert glasses’ reputation with a privacy fix and a new marketing campaign

Meta is updating its AI-powered smart glasses to close a loophole that let wearers keep recording even after covering the front-facing LED light. The camera will now stop working if the light is covered during a recording, according to Alex Himel, Meta’s vice president of augmented reality, who announced the change in a Threads post. The fix affects US consumers who use the glasses, which are sold in the American market and have drawn scrutiny over privacy concerns.

The company’s smart glasses already disabled their cameras if someone covered the LED capture light, which blinks to alert bystanders that a photo or video is being taken. However, some wearers discovered they could bypass that restriction by covering the light after starting a recording. This latest update comes just over a month after Meta changed the glasses to turn off the camera when wearers physically tampered with the capture light. Himel said the company will keep rolling out updates to ensure the LED reliably alerts bystanders when content is being captured for a user’s gallery.

Himel acknowledged that only a small minority of people attempt to bypass these protections, and he argued that the effort required to do so shows the safeguards are working. The privacy issue has broader implications for US consumers, as the glasses have been used to record people without consent and to film pranks on random bystanders. These incidents, combined with a report about Meta adding a facial recognition feature, have fueled a global campaign against the smart glasses.

In response, Meta is launching its own marketing campaign to raise awareness about the LED capture light in communities where glasses sales have been strong, according to Meta spokesperson Albert Aydin. A billboard currently up in Los Angeles shows the glasses with a caption saying the camera captures the moment while the light tells everyone around you when you do. A video from Meta similarly explains that the LED signals when the glasses are capturing photos and videos, and that no light means no capture.

Meta’s push comes as the company works to counter the “pervert glasses” reputation that has emerged in public discourse around the product. The privacy fix is meant to close a technical gap that undermined bystander trust in the device. The company has not indicated whether further changes to the glasses are planned beyond these updates.

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