Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses are fueling privacy concerns among singles as women say dates have recorded them without their knowledge — and, in some cases, posted the footage online without their consent.
Courtney McAnuff, 28, a project manager now based in Toronto, said a man she met for a date in Manhattan in the summer of 2024 recorded her while wearing Meta’s camera-equipped Ray-Bans, according to Wired.
McAnuff understood they were Meta Ray-Bans after her date explained the glasses and let her try them on.
But she said she had no idea he was recording her.
A day later, she found an Instagram Story from her date showing footage of her at the Midtown bar and on the subway as the pair traveled to a basketball game, according to Wired.
“I felt super violated,” McAnuff told the outlet.
“Like, what if I don’t want everyone knowing what I’m up to? He felt so free to film me and post it. There was no conversation about it.”
The incidents are just the latest privacy headache for Meta as its smart glasses become more popular.
More than 7 million pairs of the Ray-Bans were sold last year, according to Wired, as the glasses have been used to record pranks, workplace encounters and pickup attempts.
The glasses let wearers capture video from their point of view without raising a phone, removing a familiar visual cue that someone is recording.
Meta’s glasses feature a front-facing recording light, but Wired noted that the indicator can be defeated by modifying the hardware.
Meta says the camera will not operate if users block or otherwise tamper with the recording light.
The company also says it removes accounts and content that violate its policies, including material meant to degrade or shame others, and in August expanded a social media campaign aimed at helping people recognize when the glasses are recording.
“We don’t want people to be surreptitiously taking videos of other people and harassing them and then posting them on our platform. So we’re trying to fight that every way we can,” Instagram boss Adam Mosseri said in July.
Similar complaints have surfaced across social media.
Wired cited one woman who wrote on Bluesky that a date showed her photos he had taken without her knowledge. Another woman said in a TikTok video that she “immediately felt uncomfortable” after encountering the glasses on a date.
McAnuff said her concern extended beyond the initial recording to what could happen to a video once it had been saved.
“He didn’t ask if I wanted to be recorded or if I wanted my face uploaded. And now he has this video file of me forever. It’s definitely a big trust issue,” she told Wired.
McAnuff said she confronted her date over text after discovering the video. He apologized, but she said “he didn’t think it was that serious.”
She said they did not see each other again.
The Post has sought comment from Meta.
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