C. Scott Brown / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Meta’s smart glasses attempt to detect when their recording LED is blocked or tampered with, and will refuse to start filming.
- It turns out this check was only performed when recordings were initiated, and users could just start filming and cover the LED afterwards.
- Meta is currently rolling out a fix to correct this behavior.
Retro gamers may remember the old PlayStation 1 swap trick: The system would only check disc integrity when first booting, so you could run imports or backups by first powering the PlayStation up with a legit disc in it, and then quickly swapping it out. It turns out that Meta’s smart glasses have been vulnerable to a similar attack, and the company is only just now getting around to patching it.
Everybody’s concerned about smart glasses and privacy right now, and probably the biggest issue there is centered on surreptitious recording. Even though we all carry around phones capable of sneakily recording videos, some folks are just really upset about the idea that someone could film them with smart glasses, and they’d never know it. Responding to that pressure, manufacturers like Meta have been building their glasses with conspicuous recording LEDs, broadcasting to anyone nearby that they’re actively recording.
Remember our PlayStation 1 swap trick? As it turns out, apparently Meta glasses would only check whether their LED was blocked when users first started recording. And just like Sony pirates who would swap in that CD-R a moment later, owners could block the LED after initiating the recording, without any problems.
That said, the fight against users trying to circumvent such protections is almost certainly far from over, and Himmel acknowledges that future updates will likely be needed to keep the company’s privacy protections working as intended.
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