Dossier · Ongoing
Meta's camera glasses and covert recordings
From the court ban in England and Wales to the tightened recording light: the debate over covert recordings with Meta's AI glasses.
Meta’s camera glasses have been at the center of a debate about covert recording in public since early 2026. It was triggered by reports of people – often women – being filmed without their knowledge, and by a court case in which a witness was coached through the glasses while giving evidence. Courts and data protection authorities have responded with bans and reviews, Meta with incremental software updates to the glasses’ recording light.
This dossier tracks how technical safeguards and regulatory pressure drive each other forward – from the wearing ban in the courts of England and Wales, through Meta’s updates against covered and tampered indicator LEDs, to the question of a German sales ban raised by Hamburg’s data protection authority.