The Meta glasses revolution - is it okay to film people in public?

The Meta glasses revolution - is it okay to film people in public?

Meta said it recently updated the glasses to disable the camera if the light was tampered with

It is the newest wearable tech surge and is likely to appear soon on a street, in a park or in a town square near you. But not everyone views the future of smart glasses through rose-tinted lenses.

The technology lets users make calls, interact with AI hands-free and also capture photos and videos simply by touching the frames, raising privacy concerns.

Wetherspoons, which operates almost 800 pubs across the UK, has banned the use of the glasses to film inside its venues, and women's rights campaigners have also raised concerns about their possible use for harassment.

But with videos from content creators continuing to flourish on social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram, the argument over how best to use the glasses in public places is likely to keep going back and forth.

Pearse Vallely is one of those content creators – the 31-year-old from Ballymurphy, in west Belfast, earns his living through his social media work.

He wears a pair of Meta Ray-Ban glasses, and most of his videos show his glasses-level view of him walking down the street while greeting passers-by with rhyming lines.

One of his most popular videos, shot in Belfast city centre, reached 600,000 views on TikTok.

Content creator Pearse Vallely, wearing his Meta glasses, said he uses them "in a positive way"

The popularity of the videos depends on their friendly tone. He said he had never uploaded a video after being asked not to, and no one had ever contacted him to request that he remove a video.

"I think it's because of the nature of my conversation with them. They know I'm not making an eejit out of them, I'm doing it in a positive way."

Meta glasses, the brand used by Vallely, are the leading product in the smart glasses boom, with the company saying more than seven million pairs have been sold so far.

Priced at a few hundred pounds and made in partnership with the company behind the famous Ray-Bans sunglasses brand, the frames include a discreet camera that users can switch on by touch.

This activates a pulsing white light, intended to alert people that a video is being recorded, and a flash for photos – a feature a Meta spokesperson said "smartphones and other cameras don't have".

Meta said it recently updated the glasses to disable the camera if the light was tampered with.

If AI or smart glasses products from more companies end up selling as well as Meta's version, researchers expect as many as 100 million people will buy a pair in the next few years.

Valelly, whose videos depend on interactions being spontaneous and natural, said people are often aware he is recording because of the light on his glasses.

He also said he tries to let people know after filming that they have been recorded if he can catch them in time.

In Northern Ireland, it is generally legal to film someone even discreetly in a public place, because people in public do not usually have a reasonable expectation of privacy.

Filming would only be unlawful if it could be considered harassment, stalking, voyeuristic, or done in circumstances where there would be a reasonable expectation of privacy.

The smart glasses can be used to make hands-free calls, play music in the ear and take photos and videos

"It's okay to have a 30-second conversation with someone," Vallely said.

"I think that's something we're losing due to technology, and I'm trying to use technology to spin it around."

Vallely said he could understand the reasoning behind banning Meta glasses "if people are being crude and rude", but said the intention behind filming was what mattered.

"People know it's me doing it, while other people do it on troll accounts. No matter what is invented, people are going to use things for the wrong reasons."

Still, although Vallely said he has not faced any opposition, there are reports pointing to growing tension between people using the glasses to film and the wider public.

Last December, people praised a woman as "a hero" after she snapped a man's Meta glasses in two on the New York subway.

In July, police in Scotland launched an investigation after complaints about a TikToker who used the glasses to secretly film members of the public.

Commenting on the company's ban on filming, a Wetherspoons spokesperson said smart glasses breached "common sense by enabling surreptitious surveillance" while Monopoly Events, which runs Comic Con Northern Ireland, also banned the glasses at its events because of concerns about secret recording.

Meanwhile, TikTok videos of users approaching women, asking for their number and filming their reaction to pick-up lines are often posted with the hashtag #howtogetagirlfriend and can attract thousands of views.

Women's rights campaigners say the glasses pose risks to privacy

Elaine Crory, a women's sector lobbyist at the Women's Resource and Development Agency, said there is a lack of awareness about when and how the glasses are being used, which creates consent issues.

"Right now, if you're filming with a camera or with your phone, I usually can see that and then avoid that. But you may not be aware you're being filmed with an AI camera."

She added that there were also concerns the glasses were being used for things that are currently illegal, such as upskirting.

Crory said people can ask social media sites to remove videos and some venues have put up signs "on a case by case basis", but she believes legislation has not kept pace with the technology.

"A person has no legal redress if they are filmed in the street, on a bus, in a classroom," she said.

The Department of Justice (DoJ) said that while regulating Meta glasses was not a DoJ-specific matter, if their use involved "behaviour that crosses the criminal threshold, then existing offences such as 'up-skirting' as a form of voyeurism" were available.

Optometrist Geoff McConville says the glasses are "ground-breaking" for visually-impaired users

For optometrist Geoff McConville, who sells Meta glasses in his Belfast shop, there are concerns about their "inappropriate use", but there are also advantages to the technology.

He points to how his patients use text-to-speech functions, enabling them to read newspapers and signs with AI.

"For my elderly, visually impaired patients, they are ground-breaking. They are amazing."

In a statement, Meta said the glasses offered "critical new technology for people who are low-sighted or hard of hearing and limiting how people can use this technology would be a major step backwards".

"Naturally some places shouldn't be filmed at all and that's reasonable but rules should be applied consistently."

In a recent Q&A session, the head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, said that if people posted content "taking advantage of people and harassing them... then we're going to take the content down".