When it comes to developments in consumer tech, what may initially feel weird or superfluous often becomes normalised. Meta’s “smart” glasses are the sort of tiresome product that appeals to those keen to outsource so much of their experience of the world to tech. The marketing push is on and Meta is selling millions of them. They have various functions but the one drawing most attention is video recording.

One aspect of smart glasses does feel useful. Blind and visually impaired people may benefit from AI audio that provides descriptions of surroundings. But the majority of people who buy and wear these glasses do not need such an aid.

Wearing a bodycam on your face has proven especially popular with some content creators, who can now film their point of view hands-free instead of strapping another type of camera to themselves.

This brings us to privacy concerns. These are relevant to the user themselves. Earlier this year, workers at a Kenyan company that Meta outsourced content moderation and AI training to alleged that while doing data annotation work – labelling data to, for example, train an AI to recognise objects – they viewed seemingly private encounters filmed by Meta’s glasses, including people having sex and using the toilet. After these allegations were reported, Meta terminated its contract with the company, Sama, and more than 1,000 people lost their jobs.

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