Shady shades: Voyeurs and scammers can weaponise smart glasses

Growing unease over the use of these glasses has come amid their rising popularity.

- Irene Tham

Smart glasses have made a roaring comeback, with millions of them flying off the shelves. Powered by generative artificial intelligence (AI) and co-produced with designer brands, they bring both style and convenience to their users.

But they also carry a darker twist - Mission: Impossible films' style of spying, but where the power and technology are in the hands of the bad guys.

A viral TikTok video from a New York-based influencer, reported by several international online media in September, tells a cautionary tale of the dark side of these glasses.

Ms Aniessa Navarro realised that her aesthetician in a Manhattan wax centre was wearing Meta's RayBan smart glasses five minutes into her Brazilian wax procedure.

She confronted the aesthetician, who claimed that they were prescription glasses and were not powered. But a disturbed Ms Navarro said in her video post: "After that, I kind of shut down... I could not stop thinking: Could she be filming me?"

Growing unease over the use of these glasses has come amid their rising popularity.

During its financial results call in February, Franco-Italian glasses giant EssilorLuxottica, which produces the glasses for Meta, said it sold two million pairs of RayBan Meta smart glasses since their October 2023 debut. It aims to produce 10 million Meta glasses each year by the end of 2026.

Meta's smart glasses, now in their second generation, are co-branded with both RayBan and Oakley. The designer frames embed speakers, cameras and microphones for playing music and taking pictures and videos for social media. Builtin Gen Al also allows users to speak to the glasses to seek directions or check on their surroundings.

Rising demand for Meta glasses drove global shipments of these devices up by more than 100 per cent in the first half of 2025 over the year-ago period, said Counterpoint Research, which expects more players to enter the fray.