Should There be More Privacy Regulation on Smart Glasses?

https://news.northeastern.edu/2026/06/22/meta-smart-glasses-privacy/

Publish Date: 2026-06-22 05:00:00

At first glance, they appear like regular glasses. However, a barely noticeable soft white glow on the corner of the rim of Meta’s smart glasses indicates that the wearer is not only watching, but also recording.

The issue is not just whether people know they’re being recorded and privacy concerns brought about by smart glasses aren’t new.

But a recent revelation about a new face-recognition feature for Meta’s smart glasses that was not yet available to users renews the argument that privacy regulations surrounding this technology are lagging, experts said.

Earlier this year, the New York Times reported that Meta had been developing face recognition software to be released this year. And WIRED reported this month that Meta had quietly added that technology to its Meta AI app that, when activated by the company, would create a unique biometric signature for each face captured by the glasses’ camera. That “faceprint” would be stored on the user’s phone. The software would also alert the wearer when it recognizes a person through that faceprint. The app, which is needed to operate these smart glasses, has been downloaded over 50 million times, the report said.

Meta removed traces of the software after WIRED’s report, telling the outlet that “no final decision has been made” about face-recognition software, adding that the feature did not exist.

Removal of this software from the app is “good,” said Aanjhan Ranganathan, an associate professor and the interim director of the BS in Cybersecurity program in the Khoury College of Computer Sciences at Northeastern University. But the fact that the code was sent to so many users in the first place “tells you the default direction the product is heading absent external pressure.”

With identifying biometric data collected with smart glasses, it turns a stranger into someone with a “full dossier” on you, said Aanjhan Ranganathan, assistant professor in the…

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