AI glasses: Criminal charges against Meta, Ray-Ban and opticians

HateAid has, according to its own statements, filed criminal charges against the management of Meta, the eyewear brands Ray-Ban and Oakley (both part of EssilorLuxottica), and the optical retail chains Fielmann, Apollo-Optik, Mister Spex, and MediaMarkt with the Public Prosecutor General's Office in Frankfurt am Main. In the view of the non-profit organization, which advocates for human rights in the digital space, the sale of smart glasses with integrated cameras in Germany violates the Telecommunications Digital Services Data Protection Act (TDDDG) and therefore constitutes a criminal offense.

The TDDDG prohibits placing devices on the market that are disguised as everyday objects and are intended to film or eavesdrop on others unnoticed (§ 8 para. 1, § 27 para. 1 no. 3 in the TDDDG). HateAid believes that this offense is met by smart glasses with integrated cameras: they are a fully functional camera that looks like normal glasses. In the event of a conviction, the management faces fines or prison sentences of up to two years, as well as the confiscation of profits already made.

Wayfarer in the Crosshairs

HateAid explicitly calls for a sales ban on the AI glasses “Ray-Ban Meta Wayfarer (Gen 2)”. The organization considers this model, developed by Meta in cooperation with Ray-Ban, to be particularly dangerous because it is based on one of the best-selling sunglasses in history. Therefore, the model with a camera is hardly distinguishable from the ordinary version.

In its test of the Ray-Ban Wayfarer at the time, c't also found that one has to look closely, especially at the shiny black Wayfarer model, not to mistake it for the classic sunglasses model. Only then can you see that a camera is located on the left and an LED on the right corner of the frame. Compared to the ordinary Wayfarer, the temples are also wider, housing the battery and electronics.

Meta addresses data protection concerns by making the mentioned LED blink during recordings. If it is covered, the glasses refuse to function. However, such manipulation is not even necessary for photos: hardly anyone notices the brief blinking. This also continues to apply to the latest AI glasses model “Ray-Ban Blayzer Optics (Gen 2)”, as c't found in its test. According to Meta, the developers continue to conduct extensive tests with the aim of determining the correct LED brightness so that the indicator is clearly visible even during the day. The optimal blinking frequency as an indicator of ongoing video recordings is also a focus. Meanwhile, reports are also accumulating about “service providers” that activate the LED without restricting the recording function.

The question of when a practical assistant like Meta's Ray-Ban glasses becomes a mobile surveillance camera has also been discussed on the c't data protection podcast.

Safety by Design

According to HateAid CEO Josephine Ballon, all those involved in sales must be held accountable: “Whether on the subway, at the workplace, or in the sauna: people are nowhere safe from smart glasses. One must expect at any time to be filmed and then exposed on the internet. By selling the Ray-Ban Meta glasses, profit is once again being prioritized over safety. It cannot be that corporations like Meta get away with breaking the law again and even profiting from it.”

HateAid therefore demands that the glasses may only be sold if they are clearly recognizable as smart glasses, for example, through color-coding of the cameras. These precautions must also be secure against manipulation attempts. Finally, there must be clear limits for recordings, similar to those that apply to dashcams or bodycams. Affected individuals should not be left to fend for themselves and must be enabled to take legal action.

heise online has asked Meta, Ray-Ban, and Apollo for a statement but has not yet received a response.

(nij)