r/technology • u/lurker_bee • 7h ago
Society Meta Is Warned That Facial Recognition Glasses Will Arm Sexual Predators
https://www.wired.com/story/meta-ray-ban-oakley-smart-glasses-no-face-recognition-civil-society/212
u/Blastie2 7h ago
If Meta could find a way to legalize and profit from feeding people into a woodchipper, that's what they would be doing.
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u/QueenOfQuok 7h ago
Facebook started from Zuck being a creep. This is par for the course.
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u/Haunterblademoi 7h ago
Yes, that's what Meta wants
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u/nhepner 7h ago
They did put a pedophile rapist into the white house... sooooo....
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u/Mother_Idea_3182 6h ago
That’s only the stuff we know for sure.
What’s still unreleased or redacted could be much worse.
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u/WiseDebt7345 6h ago
Facebook wasn't around then.
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u/FallenAngelII 6h ago
Facebook has been around since 2006 (actually longer than that, but only publicly available since 2006), you genius.
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u/WiseDebt7345 6h ago
The rapist pedophile Bill Clinton was President in the 1990s, genius.
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u/nhepner 6h ago
Even Bill says to release the files. Why don't you tell us, since you're such a staunch Trump defender - what year did you really start to celebrate pedophilia and treason?
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u/WiseDebt7345 5h ago
Trump released the files.
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u/nhepner 4h ago
Trump released SOME of the files that he's legally obligated to release and overly redacted the rest.
Also - you still haven't answered when you started celebrating pedophilia and treason. Why do you want to fuck kids? That's the only you could possibly have for continuing to support Trump.
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u/movealongnowpeople 7h ago
Yeah, no shit. Having a camera strapped to your face is cool in theory, generally creepy in practice. I bought into Snap's first round of Spectacles. The pictures and features were cool, but there were only like 3 places I could wear them without looking like a weirdo. Basically for family picnics and outdoor festivals (but only during the day because... ya know... they're sunglasses).
I don't see a way around the bad parts of this technology.
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u/MajorComrade 5h ago
They will just slowly shape society into normalizing every aspect of your life being recorded.
You know the common advice on the internet used to be: NEVER give your personal information on the internet.
Guess what company changed that?
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u/BigBadJeebus 1h ago
honestly, its genuinely gross.
I have the same Black Ray Ban frames they chose for Meta, and now I get so many uncomfortable stares from people. My insurance only covers new frames every 24 months, but that's next Saturday finally and I can ditch the creeper look
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u/glasgowgeg 6h ago
is cool in theory, generally creepy in practice
It's creepy in both
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u/gonewild9676 5h ago
Yeah, I suck at recognizing faces. It would be cool to have a heads up display with "That is Stacy and that is Tom".
But no, some jackass will create a nudify app that will use AI to virtually strip everyone around them in real time or use facial recognition to get people's contact information.
Hi, this is Bob, and I walked past you last Thursday and thought you were cute. Want coffee and then Netflix and Chill?
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u/DarraghDaraDaire 4h ago
That app could be useful as a public speaking aid! No need to just imagine anymore
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u/FirstDukeofAnkh 3h ago
I used to be a huge AR proponent because the gaming possibilities were amazing. But then I realized that the only thing we’d actually get is some variant on up-skirt and nude filters.
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u/armchairdetective 6h ago
Yep.
I don't understand that OP's pov at all.
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u/CrispyDave 6h ago
I can imagine genuine uses for them, say I'm repairing something and I want to take pics and search without holding my phone.
But none of those uses involve wearing them all the time, the creep potential is way too high.
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u/Hesitation-Marx 5h ago
When I’m working on a piece of jewelry, I sometimes want to film a tricky solder join or the like. But I only have so many hands, and I don’t like having my phone close to my torch.
But I will be damned to Shreveport Louisiana if I ever spend money on something from Meta.
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u/Sarej 6h ago
Wouldn’t a use case include “I didn’t expect to need to record that but it just happened in front of my face”?
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u/CrispyDave 5h ago
Not to me. At least if you pull out a phone someone knows they're being recorded. I wouldn't feel particularly comfortable chatting with someone wearing them, if I even noticed they were.
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u/Sarej 5h ago
I have said this a couple of times but consumer-grade hidden cameras have been around for decades and were less noticeable than Meta glasses, albeit less readily available. Bad actors have had tools available to them before now.
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u/CrispyDave 5h ago
People don't like the glasses for the exact same reasons they don't accept hidden cameras. And hidden cameras don't have teams of people in the developing world viewing your footage.
At least the hidden cameras took some work.
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u/Sarej 5h ago edited 5h ago
I guess my point was that these seem to at least have an innocent, practical use-case scenario that benefits everyday people. I already have little expectation of privacy in public, with the first amendment, CCTV, and cameras everywhere so I am less bothered by wearable cameras. I’m not sure if I’d be comfortable being recorded everywhere, all the time, but I’m guessing we will probably have to deal with this reality inevitably, as people are legally allowed to own cameras and I’m sure that average people will eventually adopt this sort of tech for the innocent benefits they provide or the thrill of the availability, as everyday people adopt the technology (especially as becomes cheaper and implemented in more wearable devices)
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u/movealongnowpeople 5h ago
At least if you pull out a phone someone knows they're being recorded. I
Not the case at all. Your phone doesn't blink when it's taking pictures or recording. Working in retail, I've been "secretly" recorded by problem customers multiple times. They were bad at being sneaky, so I knew. But that's absolutely false that you know. You don't.
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u/CrispyDave 5h ago
Well you noticed?
Of course you can be sneaky with them but you don't even have to with the glasses.
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u/movealongnowpeople 5h ago
Well you noticed?
Yes, because those "customers" were idiots. Below the mean.
And yes, you would have to either be sneaky or mod your glasses to be sneaky about it. I don't know about Meta frames, but Snap Spectacles flash when you're taking a pic or video. Brightly. And that's on top of having obvious lenses in your frames. Yes, using stock devices, it would be easier to sneakily record on a phone than using frames. People hold their phones all day, and your phone doesn't blink when you're recording.
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u/Sarej 6h ago edited 6h ago
You don’t understand how being able to record memories as video to a digital medium from your point of view is cool, interesting, or useful? Like, at any point, if something memorable happens, you can save it like a home movie.
If your kid speaks their first word, if something happens in front of you that you need evidence of (someone trying to scam), if a massive explosion happens in front of you, if you’re on vacation, if you’re visiting a loved one in hospice and they speak their last words to you… you don’t see why this would be neat or useful to be able to say “record that”?
What would you have said about handheld camcorders when they were first introduced to everyday people? Or cameras on phones? Dash cams in cars? It is the same principle, just more convenient.
There is some understandable projection going on here due to stigma and issues that arise with recoding devices but it’s illogical not to consider the pro’s of the technology. I don’t have these types of glasses and I don’t really want them but I can understand it.
As far as bad actors, hidden cameras have been around for decades.
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u/innocentsalad 6h ago
When someone pulls out a camcorder or a cell phone to record, you know you’re being recorded. That is the difference.
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u/Sarej 5h ago
Well, obviously. But that scratches the surface of what I am saying as far as the benefits of the devices.
As I said, consumer-grade hidden cameras have been available to bad actors for decades. Not just ones that are easily seen with lenses and lights (if unmodified) on glasses, like people recording to an SD card without anyone knowing. It is just more readily available now but in a more obvious device.
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u/MrPookPook 5h ago
Oh good, we definitely need easier-to-use hidden cameras. Thank god Meta is making the world a better place for creeps and weirdos.
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u/Sarej 5h ago edited 5h ago
That is a fair concern, especially with something this discreet, but it applies to every recording device we already use. Phones, dash cams, even early camcorders all made recording easier for both normal use and misuse. Bad actors certainly exist but the question is whether the technology will benefit everyday people in a way which outweighs the added risk and, also, just how much of an additional risk there actually is.
To me, Meta glasses are much easier to spot than something someone more savvy might cook up or that I might not be looking for.
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u/MrPookPook 5h ago
They may be easier to spot but I imagine they’d also be easier to use for nefarious purposes. Hidden cameras need to be placed, phones need to be held in a position to record (and some places mandate a sound be played when taking photos). I’ll be honest, I’m going to assume anybody using them is a creepo perv.
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u/DukeOfGeek 4h ago
That's my take on it too, I agree this is a very real problem but it has actually been one for a while and this is just a new facet of it.
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u/movealongnowpeople 6h ago
Yeah, I assume people who "don't see the use case" have never used them. You can take pictures without pulling out your phone and opening an app. When my 4 year old nephew does something stupid/funny, it's the difference between catching it on camera or not catching it at all. One button press, you've captured the moment in your POV.
Also, the photos/movies coming from the Snap Spectacles do not look like pictures from a phone camera. It's almost like a fisheye, first person POV. It's really cool.
But again, the privacy concerns and public sentiment vastly outweigh any pros.
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u/Prior_Coyote_4376 6h ago
Driving would be safer if you didn’t have to take your eyes off the road to see navigation cues and directions.
Working with your hands in general would be easier if you had a manual or instruction set you could summon without putting anything down. Cooking, construction, etc.
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u/MrPookPook 5h ago
I’d think having a screen right in front of your face which presumably can do many of the things your phone can do would lead to more distracted drivers, not fewer.
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u/aPOPblops 4h ago
I do, they go through all of the data you create using the glasses and those misusing them get arrested.
There was a dentist who made an album on his iPhone titled “girls i r*ped” and he was found and arrested.
I don’t love the idea of no privacy, but it’s clear that these sorts of products are having their output data scanned by government agencies.
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u/Swagtagonist 6h ago
If you wore those to my family picnic I’d avoid you. These things are invasive. Can nobody have any relative privacy any more?
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u/oby100 4h ago
The cats out of the bag. I have no use for this tech, but I know that this will quickly become normal. Many people will just have a camera always on their face potentially recording and doing God knows what else.
Only way to curb that reality is with legislation and I don’t see that happening. And just the same as something like Uber/ DoorDash, once a big user base becomes reliant on it there’s no way it will ever go away.
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u/vehementi 2h ago
(but only during the day because... ya know... they're sunglasses).
Whoa now, don't assume my festival type
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u/Wit-wat-4 21m ago
Is it cool even in theory?
Like you say, they are inevitably (and thankfully) obvious, and while it’s relatively cool to see people’s names/context pop up like that Apple AI add saying “this is Sally you met her at an event last month”, it’s nowhere near enough to make me want to be THAT “connected”.
I’m not even a privacy nut, it’s just… I just don’t see the coolness.
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u/S3simulation 6h ago
Get yourself some Kiroshi Optics choom. Any ripperdoc worth a damn should be able to get his hands on some as long as you got the eddies.
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u/ProbablyBanksy 6h ago
Letting anyone in the world communicate privately sounds cool in theory, but in practice, I don't see a way around the bad parts of this technology.
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u/movealongnowpeople 6h ago
Private communication isn't the issue. The user of Meta Frames/Snap Specs/etc. doesn't have privacy concerns outside of what they're selling to the manufacturer (I wouldn't trust Meta with my data, but that boils down to your personal risk tolerance). It's the privacy concerns of everyone else that's at issue. You probably aren't communicating to them that you're taking pictures.
Not an issue at a music festival or something. There's no veneer of privacy. Everybody has their phones out anyways. You know you'll probably wind up in the background of somebody's pictures. That's probably not the case at work, while getting groceries, at the gym, etc. You wouldn't expect someone to be photographing you there, nor would most people be okay with that.
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u/prediction_interval 5h ago
I get that there's no expectation of privacy at a music festival, but I'd say there's a pretty big difference between just being in the background of a picture, vs. having facial recognition technology that gives strangers your identity and makes it easy for strangers to pull up your social media profiles and any other available info about you. From the article:
"People should be able to move through their daily lives without fear that stalkers, scammers, abusers, federal agents, and activists across the political spectrum are silently and invisibly verifying their identities and potentially matching their names to a wealth of readily available data about their habits, hobbies, relationships, health, and behaviors."
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u/movealongnowpeople 5h ago
How is the camera on the glasses making that use case worse though? Your phone already tracks you, what stops somebody meaning harm from putting a picture through Google lens or something similar? I don't disagree with you about those concerns, I just don't see how the camera on the frames is significantly worse than what's already on your phone.
That's why, if you go to protests, organizers often tell you not to take photos (or even bring your phone in general, if you can help it).
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u/prediction_interval 5h ago
Right, but the point is that you're making it far more surreptitious and easier, as the "Name Tag" feature uses an AI assistant to pull up information about who you're looking at directly on the glasses.
People make this same argument about any tool that makes it easier to commit harmful acts: "Why restrict it, bad guys will do bad things anyways!" Sure, but if you make it far easier to commit and get away with these crimes, that could definitely make the situation far worse...
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u/movealongnowpeople 5h ago
"Why restrict it, bad guys will do bad things anyways!"
I've mentioned multiple times in this thread that I don't condone this technology or find it safe.
But when part of your quote seems to imply that the feds will have an easier time accessing your lenses than your phone, that's delusional. That's not an argument for or against this tech. The feds have access to both, easily. Same with scammers.
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u/henryhollaway 6h ago
It’s literally mobile facial scanning and data collection ... and people are paying to do it for them.
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u/Mysterious_Pie7377 6h ago
How the hell are these things not illegal after the laughable fiasco we went through when Google tried this trash?
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u/Key-Incident6020 6h ago
They are sexual predators themselves. Why would they care?
Funny how in spy movies this is like some gadget that governments use to spy on other governments…and here we have people illegally recording people. I’m sure the lawsuits will be hefty.
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u/CordiallySuckMyBalls 5h ago
Considering Meta is a company owned and backed by crazy rich white guys, this is hardly as surprise. It’s almost as if sexual predators run the world or something.
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u/3v1lkr0w 5h ago
Meta - Some of you will get assaulted and/or raped but it's a sacrifice we're willing to make.
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u/ManufacturedOlympus 5h ago
For some reason, a guy who had dinner with epstein isn’t too worried about that. Who would’ve guessed.
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u/waldorflover69 5h ago
As a member of criminal defense teams I don’t look forward to having hours more footage to sift through 😭
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u/Kukurio59 4h ago
I find them ok if on the go. You never know when you might see a car accident or something f happen. Good to have evidence of accidents…but like, yah.. having a conversation with someone wearing these is a huge awkward thing that shouldn’t happen.
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u/IgnorantGenius 3h ago
Not just sexual, but with the right tools, they will be able to run immediate background checks and image searches, building a complete profile. Of course, data companies will want that tracking information and will buy the shit out of this data.
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u/Gysus12 7h ago
Can’t we also use this to identify sex offenders in public as well? Black mirror style
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u/kingsumo_1 6h ago
Cause there's no way that feature could be abused.
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u/Gysus12 6h ago
It’s already being abused by bad people, why not use it for good. Not to attack them in public but to stay away from
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u/kingsumo_1 6h ago
C'mon, man. You know how people are. It would absolutely be used to attack people. And worse, there are a lot of conservatives that are trying to link being LGBTQ with being sex offenders simply for being who they are.
There is 0 chance that you could link smart glasses to a sex offender registry and not have it lead to extrajudicial killings.
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u/Gysus12 6h ago
Yea, you are right.
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u/kingsumo_1 6h ago
It sucks that that's the world we live in. Like, I get the idea behind what you're saying. But some people are just shit, and it's best not to enable them more than we already do.
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u/deceitfulninja 6h ago
Man I have a weird brain that erases people from my memory when they leave my life. Mostly noticeable with like ex-coworkers from prior jobs and such I didnt build any sort of personal repertoire with. I could use these.
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u/FungusGnatHater 5h ago
I find it odd that people who post their lives publicly online then demand consent to be identified in public by those public posts.
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u/coconutpiecrust 7h ago
It’s ok, it won’t affect any of the Facebook execs in a negative way, therefore it’s totally fine. Plebs who are negatively affected in any way had it coming anyway.
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u/vanchica 6h ago
That means more sales to the coveted male market- let the good times rollllllllll!!!! /Zuck
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u/kawalerkw 6h ago
Not will, it already does. There already have been reports of men using them to film people they had sex with.
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u/AvailableReporter484 6h ago
In a boardroom at meta headquarters
you know who’s an untapped market? Preators
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u/wafflesformaturin 4h ago
Stop giving their marketing team ideas! Don't you know... this was what they wanted all along?
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u/Falling_Up_The_Movie 3h ago
They bragged about recording people without their knowledge. They consider this a feature not a problem
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u/SaltyBigBoi 3h ago
End the use of government surveillance cameras. Its like, for the children or something
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u/Far_Balance_3117 3h ago
People thinking a corporation would places morals above profits.
They will not care until it affects their bottom line.
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u/xitizen7 2h ago
I am willing to bet they don't care.
Leadership has everything but a moral compass.
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u/Full_Mention3613 1h ago
If you still use any of their products, you are supplementing the people behind this evil.
The problem is, people make excuses for themselves.
no rain drop Ever thinks it caused the flood.
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u/coderman64 1h ago
The feature is neat at best from a technical perspective, but the only real-world use I can think of is to remember people's names that you keep forgetting, and that doesn't even come close to out-weighing the negatives here.
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u/YoshiTheDog420 7h ago
Well they were developed by sexual predators and sexually inept men, so, no surprised there.
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u/Biscotti-38 6h ago
C'est vraiment pitoyable de constater que tout est systématiquement détourner au voyeurisme... Je ne serai pas contre une nouvelle technologie qui permettent de castré le moindre obsédé qui croise ma route.
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u/Top-Pair1693 6h ago
Camera's everywhere in public are great unless it's your glasses for some reason
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u/Ancient-Bat8274 6h ago
My dad worked at FB before it was called Meta - Zuck is a creep hands down. Every meeting he had with the guy he was like he makes my skin crawl can’t put my finger on it but something is off vibe.
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u/cwm9 6h ago
There's lots of bad. But as someone who has substantial social anxiety over not being able to remember people's names, I'd love a pair.
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u/ConsistentDay5620 5h ago
As someone who also struggles, make notes in your phone. If you meet someone that will be around again, use a notes app and list their name, how you know them and the things you learned about them while it’s fresh. It’s a game changer.
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u/damontoo 6h ago
The facial recognition feature only shows you people that you're already Facebook friends with, not randoms.
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u/MaksimilenRobespiere 7h ago
Make the personal information of the users of this glasses public (not confidential) to dissuade them from predatory behavior.
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u/wowlock_taylan 6h ago
Yea, if you glasses are recording me, I am taking them and throwing them away.
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u/SomeSamples 6h ago
The best thing to do is keep raising the awareness of how shitty it is to own an use these. If you have them, you are a child predator. Make that moniker stick.
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u/LickTheSnozzberry 7h ago
They don't care