Meta Closes Loophole Letting Smart Glasses Record Covertly

Meta has closed a privacy loophole in its Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses that allowed wearers to start recording and then cover the device's capture LED to keep filming without alerting the people around them, the company said this week.

Meta Vice President of Wearables Alex Himel announced the change, saying the update is meant to ensure "the capture LED can reliably alert bystanders whenever photos or videos are being captured and saved to someone's gallery."

Meta had already blocked recording if the LED was covered before a video started, but that fix left a gap: users could begin filming while the light was visible, then cover it afterward and keep recording undetected. The new update closes that gap by cutting off recording the moment the LED is obscured, regardless of when in the session it happens.

The change follows persistent reports that people have used Ray-Ban Meta glasses to film others without consent, sometimes for harassment. Meta said a cottage industry of accessories and online tutorials had sprung up specifically to help wearers defeat the LED indicator, and that it has shut down businesses offering those products and removed related promotional posts.

Meta framed the update as part of a broader push on tamper detection and public education about what the capture LED means, as camera-equipped smart glasses become more common.