Smart glasses fuel covert recording and surveillance in India

Experts warn that similar ordeals will become more common as smart glasses go mainstream. In India, they say, privacy problems are especially acute because covert recording and the circulation of images without consent are already pervasive. Cyberstalking, sextortion, deepfakes and other forms of online abuse are growing. A crackdown on smart glasses is unlikely, MIT Technology Review reported, because Indian law enforcement authorities are increasingly adopting AI-powered surveillance tools, including facial recognition systems and their own AI-enabled smart glasses.

Smart glasses are among the fastest-growing devices in India’s wearables market, according to the research firm International Data Corporation. Reliance Jio, one of the country’s largest telecommunications companies, says it plans to launch a sub-$105 rival to Meta’s glasses later this year. Meta’s latest model has a price tag of $420 in India. The core privacy issue is that the cameras do not look like cameras, so people may not notice they are being recorded.

Janusz Świerczyński, an Oxford Saïd Business School researcher who studies privacy and emerging technology, says Meta rejects the idea that it is responsible for protecting people from intrusions. He says the expectation is increasingly placed on bystanders to look out for themselves, including by spotting a small LED in the glasses frames that activates when recording is in progress. Meta also relies on wearers to behave responsibly, he says. Reliance Jio did not respond to a request for comment on privacy issues related to its upcoming glasses.

Creators have already shown ways to circumvent the recording light on Meta’s glasses. Tutorials demonstrate how to cover or otherwise obscure the LED while continuing to record. In March, Wired documented a market for “stealth mode” modifications that physically disable the light or remove it entirely. Świerczyński says women and other marginalized groups face greater harm when inconspicuous devices capture and circulate footage without consent, as happened to Shubnam.

The problem extends beyond viral pranks. In June, when thousands of young demonstrators gathered to protest problems with the country’s education system, Delhi police used Meta smart glasses to record them. A petition filed by former Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union president Aishe Ghosh before the Delhi High Court alleged that police had filmed protesters continuously for weeks, including while they were eating and resting. It also alleged that police had threatened to send footage of student demonstrators to their parents and colleges. In July, India’s solicitor general dismissed the case in court as “luxury litigation.” Police instead opened 10 criminal investigations against students for offenses including rioting, assault on public servants and damage to public property. Some protesters, speaking to MIT Technology Review on condition of anonymity, said they never saw the LED on the Meta AI glasses police wore during the demonstrations.

Meta maintains that its safeguard works. The company told MIT Technology Review that every pair has a capture LED that blinks.