As anxieties over surveillance tech grow, unsuspecting singles are sharing stories of being covertly filmed on dates by Meta smart glasses.

They met at a bar in midtown Manhattan. He arrived wearing a baseball cap pulled low and sported a pair of black-framed glasses, she says. As conversation flowed, from discussions about navigating life in New York to past relationships, he mentioned that his glasses were Meta Ray-Bans.

“I wasn’t familiar with them,” McAnuff, a 28-year-old project manager who now lives in Toronto, tells WIRED. It was her first time seeing the smart glasses up close, which can record images and video from the wearer’s viewpoint. He let her try them on and even showed her a couple of videos that he’d taken previously, she says. “That was it. We stopped talking about it after that. I figured that was the end of the use.”

The next day, checking her Instagram, McAnuff noticed she’d been tagged in one of his story posts. To her surprise, it was footage of them at the bar and on the subway together, en route to a basketball game uptown. In the video, McAnuff is captured from an above angle, sitting across from her date who is holding a drinking glass; WIRED has seen screenshots of the footage. “I felt super violated,” McAnuff says. “Like, what if I don’t want everyone knowing what I’m up to? He felt so free to film me and post it. There was no conversation about it.”

Meta sold more than 7 million pairs of the Ray-Bans in 2025, as its smart glasses have infiltrated public spaces thanks to pranksters with dreams of viral fame, some of whom even film people while they’re at work. The phenomenon, which has also spread to pickup artists hitting on women, has earned the hardware the nickname “creep glasses.”

Among singles, and particularly women, Meta’s AI-powered eyewear has become a recurring nuisance, as people share a spreading unease about being covertly filmed on dates.

    • velma@sh.itjust.worksOP
      2·
      4 days ago

      Here’s another one, this time from BBC:

      Women leaving the beach, going into a shop, or simply standing outside are now being approached by men usually wearing Meta’s Ray-Bans, the company’s “smart” or “AI” glasses, often in order to film the women’s responses to casual questions or pick-up lines without their knowledge or consent.

      The women only find out about the videos of them after they gain traction, and often abuse, online. They have little legal recourse as photography in public is broadly considered legal. One woman told the BBC that when she asked the person who posted a secret recording of her to remove it, she was told that doing so was “a paid service”.

      Meta’s glasses are currently the most popular on the market, estimated to make up more than 80% of all AI or smart glasses sales, as the company was the first major tech player to launch such a product in recent years.

      Made in partnership with EssilorLuxottica and offering the classic look of Ray-Bans, the glasses feature an almost invisible camera in the frames, small speakers in the arms, and in the latest version lenses that can show a wearer some information. People can start recording video or take a photo with a casual touch of the frames.

      The nature of the camera in Meta’s glasses can be so unobtrusive that even their wearers have been caught off guard by what and when they’re recording, and where those recordings are going.

        • velma@sh.itjust.worksOP
          1·
          4 days ago

          It’s backing up the Wired’s title by showing that is predominantly men who are using these glasses to film women without their consent.

          • Steve@communick.newsEnglish
            1·
            4 days ago

            But men doing it more often isn’t the problem with Wired’s title. It’s that Wired’s title implies it’s only a problem when men do it. Or more specifically, only a problem when men do it with Meta’s glasses.

            • velma@sh.itjust.worksOP
              1·
              4 days ago

              Men who wear smart glasses on dates are a red flag.

              I really don’t know why you’re so confused by that statement.

                • velma@sh.itjust.worksOP
                  1·
                  4 days ago

                  Why do you think it implies anything beyond “men who wear smart glasses on dates are a red flag”?

                  • Steve@communick.newsEnglish
                    1·
                    4 days ago

                    It’s making a judgement.
                    One that’s limited to men.
                    Limited to wearing smart glasses.
                    Limited to being on a date.

                    When the real red flag of recording people without their consent at all, isn’t limited to any of those. And it’s not even mentioned in the title.

    • velma@sh.itjust.worksOP
      2·
      4 days ago

      This article is part of a larger conversation about smart glasses, privacy concerns, and how people are using them.

      • Steve@communick.newsEnglish
        1·
        4 days ago

        Sure. I have no problem with the article or larger public conversation. The title is sensationalized with sexism, and a fad device. Which is what I tried to spark this conversation about.

        • velma@sh.itjust.worksOP
          2·
          4 days ago

          It’s not sensationalized when it’s the truth. Men who wear these smart glasses on dates are a red flag.

          Here’s another article, this one is from 404 Media:

          The researchers compiled a dataset of 350 Instagram videos posted between September 2023 and March 2026. The videos fit specific criteria: they depicted real-world interactions involving unsolicited approaches to women in public or semi-public settings. “Unsolicited interactions were defined as approaches that appeared to be initiated without prior indication of mutual engagement,” the researchers wrote in the paper. “We included videos that appeared to be staged, scripted, or comedic performance as it is often difficult to confidently determine intent in platform content, and such material may still contribute to the circulation and normalisation of these interactions.” They found the videos by searching hashtags and keywords commonly used by pickup artist grifters.

          The more surreptitious the filming seemed, the researchers found, the more serious the harassment. “The data reveals a clear correlation between the ‘covertness’ of the filming modality and the severity of the harassment,” they wrote. “This combination of first-person perspective and device concealment confirms that the means of production remain largely clandestine, facilitating a condition of low awareness among subjects and reinforcing the deceptive nature of wearable-mediated capture.”

          • Steve@communick.newsEnglish
            1·
            4 days ago

            It’s only sensationalizing when it’s the truth. If it’s not the truth it’s lying. And that a whole different thing.

              • Steve@communick.newsEnglish
                1·
                4 days ago

                No! Of course not, it’s obviously mostly men. Exclusively men I’d bet.

                The only woman I’ve heard of even buying a pair was a reporter specifically doing it for a story about them.