Google tried it first and now Facebook is following in their footsteps in their latest attempt to bring wearable tech into the mainstream, something the public have historically shunned.
Earlier this week, the social media company unveiled its own pair of smart glasses, designed in partnership with EssilorLuxottica (the owners of RayBan). However, these specs are also reigniting discussions over privacy concerns.
The glasses come on 20 designs so far and house two cameras, two micro speakers, three microphones and a processing chip, all of which will set you back $300 for a pair. They can film video, take pictures, and play music but aside from this, and without 5G connectivity, there is not much else these glasses can do.
While Facebook argues that wearable tech can be fun and encourage people to live more in the moment without fumbling around with smartphones so much, the glasses have raised serious privacy concerns for both users and the people around them.
Just this week (10/09), Italy’s data protection authority revealed that it has asked Facebook to clarify whether the smart glasses are compliant with privacy laws. In particular, the Italian authority is concerned over how Facebook intends to protect those who are filmed by the glasses, particularly children, and on whether data collected by the glasses can remain anonymous.
To quell privacy concerns, the glasses shine a small indicator light to alert others that they’re being photographed or recorded. The accompanying app connected to the glasses also produces a prompt encouraging users to assess whether it “feels appropriate” to take photos or video in the moment.
In regard to the devices listening capabilities, the assistant feature of the glasses will only be prompted on hearing the wake phrase “Hey Facebook”. However, having a pair of glasses that listens to you may be enough to make some feel uneasy. Furthermore, the glasses ask its users to allow transcripts of their vocal interactions to be stored and reviewed by both human and machine-learning algorithms to improve the Assistant feature of the glasses. So far this has not proved to be a popular option among reviewers.
These glasses are one step further towards realising Zuckerberg’s goal of the “metaverse” where the virtual and real worlds collide together and where wearables can be used to augment our reality, not just take our picture. If his dream is to be realised, Facebook’s smart glasses will have to first tackle the ongoing privacy concerns that both wearables, and the company’s reputation, are synonymous with.
