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Meta has found itself under hot water for its range of smart glasses on more than one occasion in the past.
The latest in line is Norway announcing plans to introduce strict restrictions, including a potential ban, on the use of facial recognition in such smart glasses in public places.[1]
Such is the privacy concern around facial recognition in Meta smart glasses that Norway is considering a ban before Meta has even officially rolled out facial recognition for its glasses.
But it did try to do so in early June, when it embedded the unreleased feature in its Meta AI app before removing it almost immediately after it was discovered. Now, patent filings suggest Meta may soon retry the launch.
Several pubs and restaurants in the UK have already banned the use of Meta’s smart glasses, citing privacy concerns.
Here’s what the Norwegian regulators are saying about facial recognition tech, the concerns around it, and steps you could take to protect yourself from non-consensual monitoring.
Digitalization Minister Karianne Tung told BGNES that these new technologies put pressure on privacy and people’s personal integrity, which is why they want to regulate smart glasses and similar devices more strictly now.
“There is a clear trend towards combining artificial intelligence with cameras and microphones built into glasses, headphones, hats, and other objects we use in everyday life. We must preserve this equipment from being used to monitor other people in public places,” Tung said.
Finn Myrstad, the head of digital policy at the Norwegian Consumer Council, has also called upon retailers to stop selling such smart glasses until regulators finalize a legal framework.
He said that Meta already has this technology, and it is only a matter of time before it is incorporated into glasses.
Myrstad is not wrong in saying that Meta already has its hand on facial recognition technology.
In early June, the company silently embedded unreleased facial recognition technology through its Meta AI app, the companion app for its smart glasses.
According to Wired, this new line of code could convert facial images into unique biometric signatures to identify people and also trigger person-recognized alerts.
But this led to a lot of public backlash, and so Meta removed the code just one day after it was reported.
The company didn’t give up, though. On August 13, a patent it had filed for became public, describing an AI assistant that could recognize and automatically capture interesting moments without the user giving it any instructions.
The system uses machine learning models to decide what might be interesting and even uses facial recognition to decide who is in a frame. It could also differentiate between mere acquaintances and someone close to you, such as your spouse.
What’s scary is that it also has a memory recall feature, which means if you ask it questions like, “Did I meet this guy in a red T-shirt before?” it could scan all the past memories to find relevant media. Very Black Mirror-esque.
All in all, Meta does indeed already have facial recognition technology under development, but it remains unclear when, or if, the company will roll it out on its smart glasses.
The BBC reported an incident in May 2026 where a man recorded a woman using his Meta smart glasses and the footage received around 40,000 views. The man later asked for money in exchange for removing the video.
Artis Landon, a former Milwaukee County administrator, is also facing three misdemeanor charges, which include allegedly recording his ex-partner during a sexual act using Meta smart glasses without her consent, as reported by TMJ.
In addition to putting your physical privacy in jeopardy, having your facial recognition data or biometrics with a complete stranger could also lead to identity theft scams.
Worse still, if paired with other pieces of personal information such as your name, phone number, or email address, the data could also be used by cybercriminals to carry out elaborate phishing scams and financial fraud.
Meta seems to be pretty aware of such incidents that have earned its glasses the name, “pervert glasses.”
For long, Meta has argued that its glasses contain an LED light that blinks when recording is on. However, several reports have argued that this light is very easy to miss and could even be mistaken for a Bluetooth indicator.
A recent patent granted to Meta suggests that it is working on a hardware-level fix. The patent describes a hardware privacy mute circuit that could provide tamper-resistant privacy control, which cannot be compromised through software exploits.
To put it simply, it would mean that the glasses would not be able to record physically and could not be switched back on through any hack.
The Independent, in its report, has called it a kind of kill switch, which may be Meta’s response to the ongoing controversy about the glasses’ privacy.
Although Meta hasn’t yet introduced facial recognition in its smart glasses, it might do so soon, since it clearly seems to have the technology at hand.
When it comes to pass, the onus would be on users to protect the privacy of people around them. If you own Meta Glasses, make sure you take explicit consent from people before recording them.
Or, if you notice anyone filming you through their Meta Glasses, you could request them to stop doing so and delete any content that may identify you.
Next, for protecting your data that’s leaked using smart glasses or other data breaches and hacks, consider getting an identity theft protection service.
These tools can scan the dark web and other known databases to look for your sensitive information and promptly alert you if they find anything.
Meta's past feature roll-outs and recent patent filings suggest that it already has facial recognition technology in development for its range of smart glasses.
This is why Norwegian regulators have been proactive in protecting people’s privacy and integrity.
Regulators are mulling several restrictions on the use of such facial recognition technology, including an outright ban on facial-recognition functions that identify other people in public places.
Plus, with businesses in the UK already restricting the use of Meta’s smart glasses, more governments could also follow Norway’s lead and introduce similar restrictions.
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