this post was submitted on 08 Jul 2026
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Privacy

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Smart glasses equipped with cameras, microphones, and AI are a creeping privacy and security nightmare, prompting backlash.

And rightfully so.

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[–] br3d@lemmy.world 30 points 14 hours ago (5 children)

The thing is, I'd love glasses with a private display. Imagine walking around a strange city with maps displayed in your vision, or giving a talk and having your notes in your view. Specs with screens! But why would I also want a camera? If I wanted to photograph something I can use my phone - perhaps using my SpecScreen as a viewfinder, sure, but the camera can happily live in my phone still. Basically, I'm worried the perverts are going to ruin glasses with HUDs for the rest of us. There must be dozens of us non-perverts, surely?

I'm a pervert and I'm right there with you. I have destroyed three pairs of these so far.

[–] Flames5123@sh.itjust.works 3 points 6 hours ago (2 children)

How would a view like that work without a camera? It needs to see streets to display the map accurately since GOS could only be accurate within 5meters sometimes.

[–] it_wasnt_arson@awful.systems 3 points 1 hour ago

It doesn't have to be a full on quest marker HUD overlay, just being able to glance at a mirror of your phone's map display in your peripheral vision without taking it out of your pocket would be great.

[–] antlion@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

There are plenty of legit use cases for a camera. Traveling in a foreign place the glasses could overlay text in your language. Looking at a transit table it could highlight the correct route and time. And anytime you meet someone new it could store their name and face in a database.

[–] mojofrododojo@lemmy.world 10 points 11 hours ago (3 children)

does that utility outweigh the privacy of the public though?

Shame it's meta because the answer will always skew towards invading privacy and shitting on the others.

[–] JayGray91@piefed.social 1 points 13 minutes ago

Maybe antlion already replied to you (because I see two replies below your post but one is removed/deleted) but I didn't take antlion's comment as if it outweigh the privacy invasion.

Though, it is a shame that all the cool tech and legit use cases are for nothing because it's packaged with invasive spyware.

[–] socsa@piefed.social 1 points 37 minutes ago

Exactly. Navigating a city isn't really that hard from a phone, even if you don't speak the language. You don't need to be staring at it the whole time if you learn how to just orient yourself on a street grid. Having a HUD for that purpose might be a neat trick, but not at the expense of being constantly recorded.

[–] antlion@lemmy.dbzer0.com -2 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

There is no privacy in public, by definition of those two words. I’m less concerned about a camera on somebodies face, and more concerned about the legality of doing facial recognition, and identifying and tracking of people without their explicit consent. See one is about the personal utility of camera-interfaced computing, and the other is corporate espionage. But unless lawmakers can draw that line and enforce it, we will probably just end up with spyware.

I don't see the uproar over cameras on the face when pinhole button cameras have existed for decades.

[–] mojofrododojo@lemmy.world 3 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago) (1 children)

There is no privacy in public, by definition of those two words.

creep. so quick to carve out the rules by which you and other can invade the privacy of individuals. you know there's a difference between general photography and this. you know this. I don't have to explain it to you.

you're just a creep who wants to creep on women and kids.

Er. What is the antonym of private?

[–] fizzle@quokk.au 6 points 13 hours ago

A while ago I would have agreed with this whole heartedly.

Now I'm old and grumpy and everything seems like a can / should question where the "should" part is only satisfied if a really significant problem is solved, because the "can" part always requires a trade off that is rarely worth the cost.

[–] cyberfae@piefed.social 3 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago)

Same. I even have a pair that I'm working on setting up as an accessibility device, but i worry that even with the camera looking thing taped, that it's going to cause issues, especially since I'll have a visible wire hooked up to a raspberry pi.

EDIT: I forgot to specify that this is a viture luma and not the meta raybans, which i wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole