Ray-Ban and Facebook’s Smart Glasses Collaboration raises Privacy Concerns
A new collection of the Wayfarer smart glasses currently available in the UK and US has just been launched and has faced criticism over concerns that it breaches privacy.
In terms of their style, they are the same as the previous collection except with one new added feature — a camera owned by Facebook which allows users to take instagram worthy photos and videos, a microphone and speaker to listen to podcasts, and a voice assistant so that users can go completely hands-free. You can now take Facebook with you wherever you go.
This is the first in a long line of Facebook products expected to be rolled out over the coming years that allows the user’s to leave their laptops and smartphones behind and go completely hands-free — a new way for people to stay connected going forwards.
The glasses allow users to capture photos in the moment, rather than focusing on taking a photograph, they can be present. Facebook has faced criticism about this new collection for raising concerns over breach of privacy rules as the camera and microphone are not visible to others. However, Facebook argues that the glasses alert others that they are being filmed and insists that the use of marketing would only be with the users’ permission.
Facebook claims that they designed the glasses with privacy in the design because users must physically press a button to activate the voice assistant to be able to take photos or videos and do more. However, they have been further criticized because the design does not prevent the users from breaching the privacy of others.
On top of privacy concerns — the glasses mix the digital world with the real world and there is growing concerned about the mental health issues as a result of social media.
The smart glasses have not been launched in the EU yet and in 2019 the European Data Protection Supervisor published a report setting out its concerns over smart glasses as a result of Google’s announcement to launch its own version of smart glasses.
The report sets out its concerns regarding the ‘Google Glass’ but also makes reference to other smaller manufacturers that were not selling their smart glasses so widely:
“One of the main concerns regarding smart glasses is their capacity to record video and audio in such a discreet way that the people being recorded are not aware of it…Data protection issues may arise whenever individuals within visual range are recorded, as this may happen without their knowledge, the recordings may be used for further data processing e.g. submitted to third parties in a cloud computing environment. Such situations may occur when recorded data is shared through social networks.”
In addition, there was the suggestion that smart glasses could be used by law enforcement services however, we need to be careful that smart glasses do not become a tool for mass surveillance.
Finally, the onus is on manufacturers to respect their accountability to data protection and privacy and consider these rights when designing products. As the European data protection framework becomes more robust the consideration of initiatives that allow new technologies such as smart glasses is unlikely to be implemented anytime soon. As with any new initiative or technology, it takes time for all concerns to be considered and addressed.
There will inevitably be further commentary that emerges as a result of this product and technology becomes more advanced.
