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Tech News
Meta's Ray-Ban smart glasses are increasingly being nicknamed 'perv glasses' due to misuse by people secretly filming others in public, echoing the 'Glasshole' stigma that doomed Google Glass in 2014. The author says this backlash has changed their own stance, now favoring reports that Apple's rumored smart glasses, expected next year, might launch without photo or video recording capability.
A hacker collective called stegan0gram physically removed a Flock Safety roadside camera, extracted its stored data, and recovered an on-device encryption key meant to protect it. They shared the material with 404 Media and Distributed Denial of Secrets, which passed it to WIRED for joint analysis showing the camera logged roughly 50,200 vehicles and 1.6 million images over about 21 days.
Polish developer Pawel Szydlowski launched an iPhone app called Zuckoff that uses Bluetooth signals to detect and estimate the distance of Meta's AI smart glasses, which have faced criticism for enabling covert recording. The app has attracted about 5,000 users and interest from EU regulators, while separately Meta is reportedly developing a camera-free version of its glasses and rolling out paid subscription tiers for its social apps to offset heavy losses at its Reality Labs division.
Waymo says its robotaxi detected a terms-of-service violation involving a firearm, pulled over, and alerted emergency responders, leading police to arrest two teenagers after allegedly finding a loaded AR-style ghost gun inside the car. The incident adds to a growing list of episodes where Waymo vehicles have supplied footage or triggered law enforcement action, including hit-and-run evidence and protest surveillance concerns.
Meta is reportedly developing a new line of smart glasses, dubbed Luna, that will not include cameras, according to The Information. The devices, expected to launch in October in Clubmaster and Burbank styles, will feature six microphones and ear-facing speakers so users can talk to Meta's AI assistant via a side button, but will lack the recording capability found in Meta's Ray-Ban glasses.
A New Jersey court ordered data broker Radaris to transfer control of radaris.com and more than a dozen related domains to Atlas Data Privacy Corp after the company repeatedly stonewalled a lawsuit alleging violations of Daniel's Law. The statute lets state law enforcement officials, judges and their families demand removal of their personal data from commercial brokers, with fines for noncompliance. Radaris, run by brothers Igor and Dmitry Lubarsky, had previously used a fictitious CEO and denied ownership claims made by investigative reporting.
Meta is reportedly building a camera-less version of its Ray-Ban smart glasses, codenamed Luna, following widespread criticism that the camera-equipped models enabled covert recording and harassment. The new glasses would retain six microphones for voice interaction with Meta's AI assistants but drop the camera entirely, and could debut as soon as next week's Meta Connect conference.
According to The Information, Meta is developing a new smart glasses line called Luna that omits the camera found in its current models. The glasses will reportedly come in two styles, Clubmaster and Burbank, and feature six microphones plus ear-facing speakers for interacting with Meta's AI assistant via a side button. Meta may reveal Luna at its Connect conference on September 23-24, with shipping possibly starting in October.
Wuyoh Sui, a digital-health researcher at Western University in Canada, examined how smart watches and rings are increasingly used in scientific studies of exercise, sleep and chronic disease. He points out that these commercial devices rely on opaque AI algorithms whose data handling is difficult to audit, raising ethical questions for researchers who adopt them.
Apple has unveiled 'Audio Intelligence,' a feature for upcoming Apple Watches that continuously listens to and transcribes nearby conversations, then summarizes them daily. Although Apple has built in some privacy safeguards for the watch wearer, anyone speaking near a person using this feature could be recorded and transcribed without their knowledge or consent.
Polish developer Pawel Szydlowski released a free app, ZuckOff, that scans Bluetooth signals to alert users when Ray-Ban Meta, Oakley Meta, or Snap Spectacles smart glasses are nearby. Launched in August, it has been downloaded over 5,000 times on iOS and 1,000 times on Android, built from a database of device fingerprints Szydlowski compiled by purchasing and testing the hardware himself.
Apple devices include a toggle called Improve Siri & Dictation that, when enabled, allows the company to save and analyze transcripts and audio from Siri interactions, dictation, and translation requests. Many users may have turned this on during initial device setup without fully realizing what it permits, and it can remain active indefinitely without their awareness.