At the Meta Connect 2026 keynote, Mark Zuckerberg announced a raft of new devices: VR glasses that could rival the Apple Vision Pro, audio-only smart glasses, and even a clever-looking pendant to house its new Muse AI. However, there was one thing that I was waiting to hear, which never came.
An apology.
This entire year, there have been dozens upon dozens of reports of smart glasses being used to record and harass individuals (many of them women), with those recordings appearing on Instagram and other social media platforms, where they’ve been amplified.
There was an entire cottage industry of people who you could pay to remove or disable the recording light in Meta smart glasses, so others wouldn’t know if you were filming them.
Over the summer, the backlash against “pervert glasses” grew so strong that DuckDuckGo, the privacy browser, cheekily released its own “smart glasses” — just regular sunglasses, no tech whatsoever.
A research paper published in August from the University of Sydney highlighted how Instagram influencers regularly used Meta smart glasses to harass women in public or semi-public settings.
Yes, Meta did update the firmware in its glasses to prevent them from recording video if the light was blocked or disabled, and it did ban a number of Instagram accounts. But you would think that a company whose reputation was so damaged that its products were now called “pervert glasses” would do a little more in the way of damage control when it had the spotlight all to itself.
The backlash against smart glasses is only growing stronger. Last week, several local governments in Australia voted to ban them from even more public spaces while restaurants, pubs and theaters in London are also considering similar bans.
Meta’s new audio-only smart glasses can be seen as a response to this backlash, but it’s not enough. And, as Zuckerberg himself said in an interview with Joanna Stern, it’s not even that. “We didn’t decide to design this because people had some questions two months ago,” he said.
In the same interview, Zuckerberg said that Meta has added privacy features to its glasses over time, but should have also done a better job in advertising them.
Of course, as Stern noted, it took her reporting to alert Meta to the fact that people were modifying its glasses. Zuckerberg noted that the number of glasses that were bricked as a result of their recording lights being tampered with amounted to “less than one tenth of a percent,” which would amount to several thousand glasses.
During the keynote, Zuckerberg merely reiterated the protections already in place. “We built several leading privacy features for glasses from the beginning as well, including the light that turns on any time you take and save a photo or video,” he said, “and it disables capturing images and videos if that light gets tampered with.”
Meta’s CEO then went on to talk about privacy protections as it relates to Meta being able to see how you interact with its Muse AI, but nothing more about preventing bad behavior of those using those devices.
Smart glasses are still growing
Maybe Zuckerberg doesn’t feel he needs to apologize for anything. After all, smart glasses sales are booming. Counterpoint Research released a report that said shipments in the first half of 2016 grew 263% year over year, and that Meta accounted for 94% of it. That’s a lot — in 2025, EssilorLuxottica, the company that actually makes Meta’s glasses, said that it sold 7 million pairs, up from 2 million in 2023 and 2024 combined.
An IDC report predicts that smart glasses will grow 35% to 13 million this year, and nearly double to 25 million by 2030.”
But, when even ICE bans its officers from using smart glasses, there’s more than an idle concern over the intrusiveness of these wearables.
It’s a shame. Smart glasses with cameras do have some real benefits, from helping know what’s around you, to aiding those with vision problems. But having something with a camera that’s constantly recording — or is capable of doing so — introduces a host of privacy issues that Meta didn’t consider, and even now, only seems to be paying lip service to.
When a very unfinished Apple Maps launched, Tim Cook issued an apology. This past summer, when it was revealed that law enforcement officials were abusing its technology, Flock’s CEO apologized. Even Mark Zuckerberg once apologized to the parents of children who were victims of online abuse, though it took a senate hearing to do so.
Even an acknowledgement that Meta’s glasses were being used for ill intent, and some note of sympathy for the victims, would have been at least something.
Short of being called up to Capitol Hill, what’s it going to take for Meta to show any sort of contrition? Yes, the company itself wasn’t the one harassing women, but its tools and technology enabled the behavior, and it didn’t do enough to stop it sooner.
- I’m worried ‘pervert glasses’ are going to ruin all smart glasses
- Less pervy? Meta AI glasses will now stop recording if you cover the warning light
- I just went hands-on with the new Samsung smart glasses
