Irish and Italian regulators are calling on Facebook to be more transparent about how the LED indicator lights on its new smart glasses function.
The LED light on the right side of the Facebook Ray-Ban Stories is designed to glow white when the glasses are capturing video or pictures. However, Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) and the Italian Data Protection Regulator (known as the Garante) are worried the light is too small for anyone to notice.
The organizations are "concerned about the means by which those captured in the videos and photos can receive notice they are being recorded,” they said in a statement.
Facebook added the LED light to the smart glasses to alert people that they are being filmed or photographed. The glasses also emit an audible shutter sound when recording begins. However, in our review, we noticed that the LED light can be hard to see outside in bright sunlight. The LED light is also easy to conceal; BuzzFeed demonstrated this with some tape and a Sharpie.
These flaws caught the attention of the DPC and the Garante. “It has not been demonstrated to the DPC and Garante that comprehensive testing in the field was done by Facebook or Ray-Ban to ensure the indicator LED light is an effective means of giving notice,” the DPC says.
As a result, the regulators are calling on Facebook “to confirm and demonstrate” that the LED indicator light does actually warn people that they’re being recorded. The regulators also want the company to run an information campaign to alert the public about how the smart glasses can record people in less obvious ways as compared to a smartphone.
"While it is accepted that many devices including smartphones can record third-party individuals, it is generally the case that the camera or the phone is visible as the device by which recording is happening, thereby putting those captured in the recordings on notice," the regulators added.
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In a statement, Facebook said: "We know people have questions about new technologies and how they work —and it’s important to us that we are part of this conversation. We will be working together with our regulatory partners, including the DPC as our lead regulator and the Garante, to help people understand more about how this new technology works, and the controls they have." The company has also created a website discussing how it built the smart glasses with privacy in mind.
Google Glass faced similar pushback years ago. Bars banned patrons from wearing them, citing privacy, as did movie theaters and high-profile events like Comic-Con, amid piracy concerns. Google ultimately released a list of dos and don'ts for its smart glasses, including don't "Be creepy or rude (aka, a 'Glasshole')."
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