Shady shades: Voyeurs and scammers can weaponise smart glasses – Commentary

Smart glasses have made a roaring comeback, with millions of them flying off the shelves. Powered by generative artificial intelligence (AI) and co-produced with designer brands, they bring both style and convenience to their users.

But they also carry a darker twist – Mission: Impossible films’ style of spying, but where the power and technology are in the hands of the bad guys.

A viral TikTok video from a New York-based influencer, reported by several international online media in September, tells a cautionary tale of the dark side of these glasses. 

Ms Aniessa Navarro realised that her aesthetician in a Manhattan wax centre was wearing Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses five minutes into her Brazilian wax procedure.

She confronted the aesthetician, who claimed that they were prescription glasses and were not powered. But a disturbed Ms Navarro said in her video post: “After that, I kind of shut down... I could not stop thinking: Could she be filming me?”

Growing unease over the use of these glasses has come amid their rising popularity.

During its financial results call in February, Franco-Italian glasses giant EssilorLuxottica, which produces the glasses for Meta, said it sold two million pairs of Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses since their October 2023 debut. It aims to produce 10 million Meta glasses each year by the end of 2026.

Meta’s smart glasses, now in their second generation, are co-branded with both Ray-Ban and Oakley. The designer frames embed speakers, cameras and microphones for playing music and taking pictures and videos for social media. Built-in Gen AI also allows users to speak to the glasses to seek directions or check on their surroundings.

Rising demand for Meta glasses drove global shipments of these devices up by more than 100 per cent in the first half of 2025 over the year-ago period, said Counterpoint Research, which expects more players to enter the fray. 

Toxic surveillance, safety risks

Recording tools disguised in everyday wear, such as smart glasses, are a voyeur’s dream come true. 

Taking upskirt videos simply by looking up from the bottom of a long flight of stairs or escalator would be so easy. Secret recording in toilets, locker rooms or closed-door meetings would be hard to police. Stalking, doxxing, bullying and scamming could hit new levels.

And these aren’t dystopian visions of the future – they are possible now with existing technology.

In 2024, two Harvard students demonstrated that it was possible to use smart glasses and facial recognition technologies to look at people’s faces and identify them in real time.

Mr AnhPhu Nguyen and Mr Caine Ardayfio used Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses to live-stream videos to Instagram. An algorithm they wrote then identified faces in the Instagram footage and prompted face search engines to trawl the internet for matching images.

If a name matched an image, their software then scraped publicly available databases for the subjects’ other personal data, including phone numbers, home addresses and relatives’ names.

The New York Post described the tool developed by the duo as “every stalker’s dream”.

More chillingly, the two students also chatted up complete strangers, acting as if they knew these people, based on personal data their software was able to glean from the internet.

Through this, they showed how scammers could strike up conversations or create fake emergencies more convincingly to manipulate potential victims into revealing sensitive information or send money.

Creepy behaviour can quickly turn toxic, enabled by AI. Given that it is now possible to generate deepfake pornography of people from the social media images they post, what is to stop a pervert from discreetly filming people on the street and using AI to remove the clothing? 

Users of smart glasses could also pose road safety risks and be a public nuisance.

For better or worse, many device models have in-lens displays for viewing text messages, live translations or turn-by-turn navigation. These displays, while useful, may be a source of distraction.

Users of smart glasses may endanger themselves and those around them with constant notifications flashing in their field of vision. This will be similar to how Pokemon Go-related distractions during the game’s peak popularity in 2016 led to accidents involving players walking into ditches and drivers crashing their cars.

There’s a bright side, too

Not all uses of smart glasses are nefarious. The technology has benefited disadvantaged groups, particularly the blind. 

In an interview with BBC in August, Mr Andy Evans said he has had a much better quality of life since buying his first pair of Ray-Ban Meta glasses.

The British man can again order food in a restaurant and get alerted to obstacles in his path, thanks to Meta AI embedded in his glasses. “It’s life-changing technology,” he said.

Another Briton, Mr Robin Spinks, head of inclusive design at the Royal National Institute of Blind People, said he too uses the glasses every day to get a description of a room, a scene on the beach or a zoo enclosure.

If these glasses are going to be part of everyday wear, the tension between the benefits and the ethical challenges the technology brings must be reconciled.

One way is through ethical design. For instance, more visible, tamper-resistant safety indicators have to be developed to show that the devices are recording.

Most smart glasses today emit a small LED (light-emitting diode) light or a brief chime to indicate they are recording.

The problem is the indicators can be missed under bright lighting or in noisy environments, or deliberately concealed for covert recordings. Tutorials on workarounds and third-party accessories to turn off the LED light and sound can be easily found online. 

While it is clearly illegal to film without consent in toilets or changing rooms under voyeurism laws such as the Penal Code in Singapore, the issue may not be so straightforward in a business setting such as a restaurant, spa or fitness centre. 

Most organisations have yet to develop rules to govern the use of smart glasses. It is about time they did.

Smart glasses create a power imbalance between wearers and non-wearers, as the latter have little or no control over whether they are recorded or how their images are used. It makes sense to set clear rules regarding their use, say, in hospitals to protect patient confidentiality and dignity. The same rules should also apply in spas and massage and waxing salons, where intimate procedures are done. 

Businesses are free to set rules for how their customers engage with one another. The recourse would be to kick rogue patrons out of their premises.

Casinos were among the first to impose a smart glasses ban following the launch of Google Glass in 2012, fearing that customers would use them to cheat. In a poker game, smart glasses could be used to broadcast a patron’s hand to an accomplice. Security personnel at casinos would ask patrons to remove the devices before gambling, or leave the premises.

They did not have to do so for some years following the discontinuation of Google Glass in 2015 – until now, that is.

But spotting smart glasses (especially the lesser-known Chinese alternatives) has become harder, compared with identifying Google Glass with its distinctive design.

The Singapore authorities have never hesitated to tell people what is out of bounds. Signs warning against smoking and vaping, and even telling people to keep noise levels down, are commonplace. It’s only a matter of time before they weigh in on the improper use of smart glasses.

Until then, one defence against this technology is another technology: privacy eyewear.

This uses infrared-blocking lenses and reflective frames to deny surveillance cameras the right amount of light needed to clearly record faces and surroundings.

I might just get a pair.

Irene Tham is an assistant news editor and oversees tech coverage as The Straits Times’ technology editor. She writes regular columns that look at how technology is shaping the world.

Invasion of the glasses

Here is how different technology giants have upped their smart glass game in recent months:

1. Meta - In September, the tech giant showed off new Meta Ray-Ban Display smart glasses that work with neural wristbands to allow wearers to use hand gestures to call up an in-lens display for live translations or turn-by-turn navigation on a map. Another new model, the Oakley Meta Vanguard, offers integration with Garmin smartwatches and the popular Strava sports app to allow wearers to use voice commands to get their workout statistics played back through built-in speakers. Those training with Strava can graphically overlay their performance metrics onto videos and photos captured with the glasses, and share their workout milestones directly on social media. 

2. Amazon - In October, Amazon showed off new AI glasses for its delivery drivers, with a focus on smoothening the final steps in a delivery’s journey to customers. The glasses display package locations, turn-by-turn walking directions and delivery instructions. AI smarts in the glasses also allow workers to scan packages and take proof-of-delivery photos in a hands-free manner.

3. Google - The tech giant is taking another stab at consumer AI eyewear after its initial failure with Google Glass. In May, Google committed up to US$75 million to work with New York-based eyewear maker Warby Parker to develop AI-powered glasses intended for all-day wear. In June, Google invested US$100 million dollars in Gentle Monster for a 4 per cent stake in the South Korean eyewear brand to develop a new model of smart glasses that Google will launch in 2026.

4. Ant Group - In November, the Chinese fintech giant demonstrated the ability to scan a QR code using eye-tracking tech in smart glasses, and confirm payment through iris authentication, as part of its broader bet on the growing use of wearable devices for shopping and payments. Ant has partnered hardware makers Xiaomi and Meizu, majority owned by Chinese automotive firm Geely Holding Group, for their smart glasses. 

5. Alibaba - In July, the Chinese e-commerce giant unveiled a pair of smart glasses powered by its artificial intelligence models to allow AliPay users to make payments through voice commands and visual confirmation. The Quark AI Glasses are expected to be launched in China by the end of 2025.

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