Meta Is Toying With the Idea of Smart Glasses That Record Everything, All the Time

Source: Gizmodo

Smart glasses ick people out for various reasons, and many have to do with cameras. In response to that ever-growing aversion, companies that make face computers with cameras on them have extended some small but helpful olive branches to people worried about privacy.

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In Meta's case, though, things may be swinging toward the polar opposite end of the spectrum. According to the Financial Times, Meta is testing prototype smart glasses that record literally everything, all the time. The so-called "super-sensing" glasses would reportedly capture photos "every few seconds," according to sources familiar with the matter who spoke to the Financial Times. The idea here is that Meta's AI glasses could act as a kind of always-on assistant and even remember things about your day like where you left your keys or specific things you said.

At the risk of stating the obvious, that would be a pretty significant escalation in how Meta's smart glasses currently work. Right now, in order to record your surroundings, you have to activate your glasses with your voice or the capture button on the glasses. Once you're taking a picture or a video, an LED indicator lights up on the front of the glasses to show the world that your camera is on.

The Financial Times reports that, with the super-sensing prototype being tested, there is no plan to light up the LED indicator when the glasses are taking photos of the wearer's surroundings. On top of that, there are divergent views within the company on whether the data collected by the glasses should be stored on Meta's servers and used to train its AI. One proposed iteration of super-sensing would collect metadata, but not store pictures themselves, which would be a bit more privacy-friendly but still far from perfect. Metadata in photos, for example, can often contain exact locations, device serial numbers, and more.

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Read more: https://gizmodo.com/meta-is-toying-with-the-idea-of-smart-glasses-that-record-everything-all-the-time-2000782893

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This is not just Zuckerberg "toying with" using anyone dumb enough (or AI-addicted enough or perverted enough) to buy these "super sensing" glasses as mobile spies for Meta on everyone and everything around them. The Financial Times article - https://www.ft.com/content/ac282450-91a8-4597-8f60-9e6ef416865a - says Meta is currently testing a prototype.

And while Gizmodo says there is "no plan to light up the LED indicator" there in fact IS a plan, according to FT, and it is "not to activate the LED when the super-sensing features are being used." FT says their sources say that plan could change, but the current plan and intent is for Meta smart glasses to be spying on everyone and everything all the time.

And the software to do this will be downloaded to existing, already sold, Meta smart glasses.

Zuckerberg reportedly, according to FT, thinks these super sensing smart glasses will replace smartphones. FT quotes him as saying that he wants these glasses to be "a personal agent that's with you all day long, helping you remember things and achieve your goals."

And of course an agent that's also working for Meta and gathering data for Zuckerberg.

I've posted here before about Meta wanting to add a facial recognition feature to its smart glasses, creepy as that is, and in fact secretly downloading software for facial recognition to current smart glasses, without activating that software. That sneaky addition to the pervert glasses was spotted and the backlash caused Meta to remove the facial recognition software (supposedly).

But even if people wearing Meta smart glasses don't have access to facial recognition via AI, Meta will, and there's no reason to believe they won't use it.

Zuckerberg wants everyone who will buy Meta smart glasses to continually spy for him, without even an LED to let people know they're being recorded. Continuous audio recording, every second. Images recorded every few seconds.

EDITING to add that it's very likely Zuckerberg has already discussed the tremendous data-gathering potential of "super sensing" smart glasses with Trump and the Trump regime.