Privacy may take a tumble through this looking glass
There’s a really good chance that people not wearing Facebook’s video Ray-Bans will feel they are being spied on
Facebook, famous for its software and a social media platform used to connect and chat with friends and family, has in recent years invested more heavily in hardware.
Recently it launched another product that has potential privacy problems: smart glasses called Ray-Ban Stories, in partnership with the shades brand.
The smart glasses are functionally similar to devices already on the market, such as Snapchat Spectacles. These allow users to capture images and videos and upload them to their social media accounts using an app called Facebook View.
The glasses include a camera and a light sensor that can record up to 10 seconds of video to distribute in some way. The videos are recorded in a circular format and can be uploaded as private or public videos.
The marketing campaign labels the specs as offering the ability to “capture moments in a more natural way”.
It’s reportedly a good alternative for users who don’t enjoy using their smartphones to capture content for their social channels. Just pop the specs on and … action.
The problem with this is that the camera may also be running whenever the glasses are worn. SA Applin, an anthropologist, writes in Technology Review about the potential outcome of equipping the public with surveillance tech.
“How will we feel going about our lives in public, knowing that at any moment the people around us might be wearing stealth surveillance technology? People have recorded others in public for decades, but it’s got more difficult for the average person to detect, and Facebook’s new glasses will make it harder still, since they resemble and carry the Ray-Ban brand,” writes Applin.
This plays into Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s vision for the metaverse: in his words “a shared space that unifies many companies and mediated experiences, including real, virtual, and augmented worlds”.
But it’s unclear whether people will accept the invasion of their privacy implied in these new glasses. People are not thrilled about the idea of having their personal data mined and analysed by a company like Facebook. The company already has a bad reputation for not protecting privacy, so people may not want to buy this product.
Applin foresees people resorting to hiding their faces from others with sunglasses: “While Facebook conducts an enormous beta test in our public spaces, concerned people will be even more on guard in public and may even take evasive measures, such as wearing hats or glasses, or turning away from anyone wearing Ray-Bans,” she says.
It may be that Facebook is grooming its users to comfortably don surveillance tech, using the virtual reality and augmented reality (AR) technology it has already invested in.
But by branding the classes as a Ray-Ban product rather than a Facebook one, with classic styling rather than a hi-tech look, and able to upload to many different social
media platforms, the company is trying to sell a concept that could open the floodgates to other gadgets that could erode personal privacy.
Perhaps in an attempt to preempt a backlash, Facebook has developed a dedicated privacy policy for the new technology. It has said the glasses are “ads-free experiences” and that it doesn’t “use the content of your photos and videos for personalised ads”.
That won’t be the major concern for many users. While it will be a nuisance seeing ads beamed directly into your eyes by your sunglasses, users should be more concerned with how the content captured with the onboard cam and mic is stored and used.
As with most video-capturing cameras, the sensor in the corner of the specs will feature a small red light when it’s recording. But that is something that could be covered or concealed to secretly capture footage in some cases.
Bizarrely, the social media company diverts the responsibility to users to behave ethically with their new smart glasses.
The Stories privacy page details certain “suggestions” for users, like “not having the device in private spaces and not engaging in harmful activities”.
Facebook’s responsible innovation principles for its AR development staff are similarly vague, with nebulous phrases like “put people first” and “never surprise people”. It is not explicit about what should not be done.
Certainly, Facebook’s road ahead suggests a reckoning with the world’s social media users over online privacy issues.
But then the Facebook of today will look entirely different in a decade’s time.
For his part, Zuckerberg seems dedicated to an obscure idea for future tech. He says: “Facebook would strive to build a maximalist, interconnected set of experiences straight out of sci-fi — a world known as the metaverse.”
If that sounds like nothing more than brain-decaying jargon, well, maybe Zuckerberg likes it that way.