A New York subway rider who broke another passenger’s Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses has become an unexpected hero, sparking a discussion about privacy.
“She just broke my Meta glasses,” a TikTok user said in a viral video, pointing his camera into an angry-looking woman on the NYC subway cart.
When she was departing, the TikToker, who goes by eth8n, shouted at her, telling her she is “going to be famous on the internet.”
Netizens, however, quickly took the woman’s side, hailing her bravery for standing up against being filmed without her consent.
The unexpected reaction prompted the user to post a follow-up video, where he admitted to filming with his Meta Ray-Ban glasses. He claimed that he was making funny sounds and people in the cart were “crying laughing at,” while the woman stood 12 feet away from him.
The TikToker described the incident as an attack and reported it to the police. However, this didn’t help win the sympathy of netizens.
One X user called the women perfect, saying they hoped “she called him a dork for wearing them before she broke them.”
Others said wearing smart glasses in public places automatically makes the wearer a freak.
Meta’s Ray-Ban glasses have an in-built LED light to notify bystanders when they’re capturing video or images. Despite the users’ efforts to bypass it, there appears to be no effective workarounds for the warning system.
People don’t want to be filmed in public
Content creators don’t shy away from filming in public places, where unsuspecting passersby sometimes get on camera. Other influencers deliberately seek to involve other people by interviewing them or playing pranks.
With influencers increasingly invading spaces like restaurants, gyms, and public transportation, such behavior may be getting on people’s nerves.
An online survey by The Korea Herald, South Korea’s newspaper, suggests that 60% of respondents are skeptical about TikTokers filming in public.
Nearly half (48%) of Americans believe it should be illegal to film and share content of strangers in public without their consent on social media, according to a 2023 survey.
Concerns about the end of privacy
Being filmed by voyeurs and perverts is only one concern posed by the use of smart glasses. Critics fear that if the technology continues to advance, it could play a role in erasing privacy as we know it.
Last year, a group of Harvard students connected Meta Ray-Bans to the facial recognition technology (FRT), enabling the real-time identification of strangers in public spaces, and providing personal information such as names and home addresses.
Facial recognition technology, which is primarily available to law enforcement, is highly controversial. While agencies say it helps arrest violent criminals, the overreliance on FRT has led to wrongful arrests due to misidentification in the past.
Making the technology commercially available would mean that anyone can access our digital footprint, which we often don’t have control over, resulting in a surveillance nightmare that is impossible to contain.
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