Meta says it has resolved an issue after some Ray-Ban Meta owners reported that their glasses recorded conversations without the “Hey Meta” wake phrase.
Users reported finding recordings and transcripts of conversations they did not knowingly save. Recording without anyone realizing raises privacy concerns for both the wearer and the people around them.
The complaints surfaced on Reddit, where one owner described unexpected recordings occurring with three pairs of glasses. The owner said the behavior started after a firmware update and occurred even with Respond without Hey Meta disabled. They also reported that the glasses’ internal notification light sometimes activated during normal conversation. Other commenters described similar unexplained activations.
As Android Authority reports, Meta says the problem has been fixed:
“This issue has been resolved. People can manage, review and delete voice logs of their interactions with Meta AI via settings at any time.”
What’s missing is a public explanation of what caused it, how many people were affected, and what happened to the audio captured.
This isn’t the first time we’ve reported on privacy concerns involving smart glasses. In June, we covered unreleased facial-recognition code found in Meta’s companion app. The code was not active, but the reporting raised concerns about how wearable cameras could eventually move from capturing people to identifying them without their knowledge.
What owners can do
According to the Reddit owner, Meta Support recommended disabling microphone and camera permissions, turning off Wear Detection, deleting voice history, and disabling automatic updates. Those steps would limit much of the gadget’s core functionality without explaining what went wrong.
Until Meta provides a fuller explanation, here are a few precautions that make sense if you wish to keep using your smart glasses:
- Review your voice history. Look for interactions you do not recognize and delete unwanted recordings or transcripts. Meta says users can manage these logs through Settings.
- Check your voice-activation settings. The owner reporting the issue said Respond without Hey Meta was already disabled, so do not treat that setting alone as a guarantee against unintended activation.
- Keep the glasses and companion app updated. Although the user associated the behavior with an update, that is not a good reason to permanently abandon updates that may contain security and privacy fixes.
- Always ask before recording other people. Their privacy matters even when your glasses are working exactly as intended.
Meta still owes users an explanation of what went wrong and what it has done to ensure it won’t happen again.
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Article Link: Meta says it’s fixed Ray-Ban smart glasses’ unprompted eavesdropping | Malwarebytes