German advocacy group lodges criminal complaint over Meta AI glasses
“There's no place to escape from smart glasses.”
Image by JLStock | Shutterstock
- HateAid filed a criminal complaint against Meta and retailers over Ray-Ban Meta Wayfarer smart glasses in Germany.
- German law bans selling communication devices designed to record people covertly without their knowledge or consent.
- Germany's BNetzA regulator confirmed smart glasses are legal only if the recording function is clearly visible.
- HateAid links smart glasses to rising image-based digital violence, warning the devices disproportionately target women.
Key Takeaways by nexos.ai, reviewed by Cybernews staff.
A German advocacy group has filed a criminal complaint against Meta and other companies selling the technology group's AI glasses in Germany, arguing the devices violate privacy laws.
Digital rights group HateAid said in a statement on Wednesday that the launch of the devices, the Ray-Ban Meta Wayfarer in particular, broke German digital privacy laws, in the latest sign of legal scrutiny in a nation where the right to privacy is highly valued.
"There's no place to escape from smart glasses. You have to expect at any moment to be filmed and then exposed on the internet," said HateAid managing director Josephine Ballon.
The organization reported the management of Meta, units of spectacles maker EssilorLuxottica, including Ray-Ban, as well as retailers Fielmann, Apollo-Optik, Mister Spex, and MediaMarkt, to the Frankfurt-based digital crime prosecution unit ZIT.
Mister Spex said it had not been officially notified of a complaint and that it was taking the protection of privacy very seriously.
The other companies and ZIT did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
HateAid said its complaint was based on a federal digital data protection law that prohibits the sale of communication devices designed to film people without them noticing.
Germany's digital communications regulator, the Federal Network Agency, issued a statement on smart glasses in late 2023, stating that connected devices for covert audio or video recording were banned.
The agency, known as BNetzA, told Reuters on Wednesday that it was closely monitoring the smart glasses market but was not, for now, formally investigating any breaches.
"The ownership, import or sale of smart glasses is not banned ... for as long as the recording function is clearly visible, for instance via an optical signal," said a spokesperson.
Broadcaster SWR reported in July that a Hamburg-based state privacy protection agency was taking legal steps against the use of smart glasses.
HateAid said in its statement that it had been increasingly registering image-based digital violence, mainly targeting women.
"Smart glasses now allow a particularly inconspicuous surveillance technology to be disguised as an everyday object."
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