Meta $META is updating its smart glasses to permanently disable the camera if the device detects that the privacy LED has been physically tampered with or destroyed, the company said Wednesday.
Referred to internally as the capture LED, the privacy indicator light flashes white each time a photo is captured and remains active in a blinking state for the duration of any video. The company said the light has no off switch and has been present since the first generation of its glasses.
A protection against LED obstruction — tape being the most common method — has existed since the glasses' second generation, cutting off camera access whenever the light is covered. More recently, however, the company found that some users had escalated well past simple tape, employing deliberate physical methods to alter or eliminate the LED altogether. To close that gap, the update renders the camera inoperable whenever the device registers that the LED has undergone physical alteration or destruction. The update is mandatory and is currently rolling out to all users, Meta confirmed to 9to5Google and Engadget.
Beyond the hardware-level fix, Meta said it has been sweeping its platforms to take down content — including ads and Marketplace listings — that promote services designed to defeat the LED. Accounts found advertising such modifications face permanent bans, and Meta said litigation is on the table for those running tampering operations — even when those businesses exist entirely outside Meta's ecosystem.
As Gizmodo reported, journalist Joanna Stern had earlier documented a network of vendors willing to physically extract the LED from Meta's glasses, effectively turning them into covert recording devices.
The update comes as Meta's glasses have faced sustained public backlash over privacy concerns. The ACLU and 75 other organizations called on Meta to abandon plans to add facial recognition to its smart glasses, arguing the technology posed unacceptable risks. At a press event tied to the launch of the company's self-branded Meta Glasses line, Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth described the challenge of camera misuse as "a cat and mouse game."
Meta said no other camera product has implemented a feature that disables recording when the privacy indicator is physically destroyed, and described the update as an industry first.