Meta Says It Will Disable The Camera On Its Glasses If You Tamper With The Recording LED

The launch of Meta’s latest set of AI Glasses not only reignited, but also intensified public anger surrounding the devices. Critics have raised concerns about how the glasses are being used to creep on women and about privacy in general, especially since modders had already found a way to disable the LED lights indicating that the user is recording. Some modders had even turned removing Meta glasses’ LED lights into a business. Now, Meta is attempting to assuage people’s worries with an FAQ, where the company addresses the backlash against the devices. 

In the FAQ, Meta explained that its glasses come with a white light called the “capture LED,” which blinks briefly when the user takes a photo and continues blinking as long as they’re recording. The capture LED, it wrote, has no off switch and is there so everybody around the user knows that they’re recording. But what about the workarounds users have discovered so they can record secretly?

Its devices’ camera will automatically be disabled if it detects the capture LED has been blocked, Meta said, and that safeguard has been in place since the second generation of its glasses. The device won’t be able to take more photos and videos until its system detects that the capture LED has been uncovered. 

Meta admitted in its post that it has seen some people “go beyond using tape to sophisticated efforts to modify or destroy the capture LED.” It’s now updating its devices to disable the camera if its system detects that the capture LED had been physically tampered with or destroyed. The company has confirmed to Engadget that the software update is mandatory and is currently rolling out. 

In addition, Meta said it has been removing ads, posts and Marketplace listings that advertise individuals’ and businesses’ capture LED tampering services. It vowed to ban accounts that advertise those services and to take legal action against them, even if their advertisements are off Meta’s own platforms.