Meta’s latest Ray-Ban smart glasses allow users to take photos and videos discreetly in public spaces, often without the knowledge or consent of those around them. While marketed as innovative technology, these devices raise serious concerns for privacy, safety, and personal freedom.

Children, vulnerable adults, victims of abuse, healthcare patients, and members of the public going about their daily lives could be photographed or recorded without their awareness. Unlike a smartphone, these glasses make it almost impossible to tell when someone is capturing images, creating opportunities for harassment, stalking, data collection, and other forms of misuse.

As facial recognition and AI technologies continue to advance, images taken anonymously today could be analysed, shared, and exploited tomorrow. Our laws and safeguards have not kept pace with these risks.

We call on policymakers to prohibit the sale and use of camera-equipped smart glasses until robust privacy protections, clear consent requirements, and effective enforcement measures are in place.

The right to move through society without being secretly recorded should not be sacrificed in the name of convenience or corporate profit.