The Global Story: Smart glasses or ‘pervert glasses’?

Asma Khalid (0:00)

Hi there, it's Asma Khalid. I'm one of the hosts of The Global Story Podcast from the BBC.

On our show, we explore one big story each weekday. That's at the intersection of where the world and America meet. Today, we're bringing you an episode on a controversial new technology known as smart glasses. They can take photos, record video, and use AI to help people navigate the world. Fans of this tech say the glasses are revolutionary. Critics say they're an invasion of privacy. So who actually wants them and why are tech companies spending loads of money to develop them? My co-host, Tristan Redmond and I went looking for answers.

By the way, if you all enjoy this episode, you can find more from us every weekday. Just search for The Global Story wherever you get your podcasts. Now, on to the show.

Tristan Redmond (0:54)

There's this online trend of videos. You might have seen them, where men proposition women in public. The format's almost always the same. It goes like this. Hey, excuse me.

If there was one thing I'd change about you, it would be your last name to mine. You're seeing the world from someone else's point of view. The cameras are eye level.

Mark Zuckerberg (1:15)

Hey, baby. I like your shirt.

SPEAKER_4 (1:18)

Hi, you're very beautiful. I would like to take you out sometime.

Tristan Redmond (1:21)

There's a woman walking towards the camera, and then you hear the man who's filming.

SPEAKER_4 (1:26)

Are you single? Yes or no?

Lily Jamali (1:31)

Why are you not talking, mama?

Tristan Redmond (1:32)

The women often look uncomfortable. Sometimes they try to laugh it off. Give me a kiss. You're beautiful. It doesn't seem like they know they're being filmed. I found these videos under the hashtag Riz Cam on TikTok. Usually, they're filmed with so-called smart glasses, glasses with cameras built into them.

And a bunch of tech companies are investing a lot of money in these. Kylie Jenner and Lisa, the K-pop star, as well as the big glasses brands, Ray-Ban and Oakley have their own ranges with Meta.

But that hasn't stopped some people calling them pervert glasses. What are big companies like Meta doing to protect people's privacy? And why are they pouring billions of dollars into this controversial tech? From the BBC, I'm Tristan Redman. And today on The Global Story, who are smart glasses actually for?

Well, to find out more about all this, Asma and I spoke with our North America tech correspondent, Lily Jamali, a regular on the show who spoke to us from San Francisco. Great to have you back on the show, Lily. Thanks for joining us.

Lily Jamali (2:46)

Great to be back.

Tristan Redmond (2:47)

So last week, Lily, we made an episode about Meta. We're on a bit of a Meta run at the moment. And it was about the social reckoning, which is the new movie about the company and what's happened to Facebook and concerns over privacy and all that kind of thing. But one of the kind of major Meta lines that we didn't mention in that episode, and we thought we needed to do something about that, is the question of Meta glasses, which are a big deal right now.

Meta glasses, some critics have been dubbing them pervert glasses. Why would they say that, Lily?

Lily Jamali (3:24)

Well, they are being called that by a certain subset of critics because when people are wearing them, you can record people, you can record video, you can capture photos.

And when this happens, there's supposed to be a light that goes on to indicate to the outside world, to the people in your surroundings that that is taking place. Number one, not everyone is familiar with smart glasses and how they work and what that light might mean. But there have also been some instances of these glasses being used to harass mostly women and girls, filming these folks without their consent and then sharing the footage. So the BBC has spoken with some of these victims who say that they were filmed, in one case, by a man who had taken video of her with these smart glasses without her consent. She didn't know it was happening. The video was then posted to social media where it went viral. And the comments that resulted were derogatory, and it was really upsetting to her. Una lives in Sussex. She was walking home from the beach when a man approached her.

SPEAKER_6 (4:33)

He was wearing glasses. They just looked like sunglasses.

SPEAKER_4 (4:36)

And he just asked for my name, and he asked where I was from.

Lily Jamali (4:39)

Two weeks later, her friend sent her this video on TikTok.