People are going to extreme lengths to stop themselves from being filmed through Meta’s ‘pervert glasses’

The newest privacy panic isn’t about a phone held at arm’s length. It’s about glasses that look ordinary, but can quietly record photos, video and audio while people around them may never notice. Meta’s Ray-Ban Meta Glasses have become the flashpoint, and the backlash has been sharp enough that some people now call them “pervert glasses.”

That label isn’t just internet theater. Fortune says Meta is being sued after a study found subcontractors viewing intimate moments, and Instagram has already disabled accounts that pulled in millions of followers by streaming live feeds from Meta glasses. A spokesperson said the platform does not want harassing content and removes it when it finds it. So the problem has already spilled out of hardware and into the social apps built around it.

What makes the glasses especially awkward is how hidden they are. A white capture LED on the front of the frames blinks when recording starts, and Meta says it cannot be switched off. The company also says the camera is disabled if that light is covered or blocked. But as Harvard computer science professor Jim Waldo put it, the issue is not just the gadget; it is the mix of Meta glasses, facial recognition, AI and other tools landing in a world people are not ready for.

The legal side is messy for the same reason. Gene Kang, a partner at Rivkin Radler LLP, told Fortune that if someone raises a phone toward another person, the recording is obvious. Glasses change that. If the person being filmed does not realize it, implied consent becomes much harder to argue, and privacy and consent laws may come into play.

People are already fighting back in odd ways. Some use face markings to confuse recognition systems. Others try singing copyrighted Disney songs on the theory that social platforms will pull the clips. An open-source app called Nearby Glasses, built by Professor Dr. Yves Jeanrenaud, tries to warn users when Meta Glasses are nearby and has passed 100,000 downloads on Google Play. Even its creator says it is only a partial fix. The real discomfort here is simple: wearable tech is getting better at capturing other people, not just helping the wearer.