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Workers report watching Ray-Ban Meta-shot footage of people using the bathroom

arstechnica.com

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Re: Workers report watching Ray-Ban Meta-shot footage of people using the bathroom

#41

Post by Xiol »

expedition32 wrote: post #36
autoexec wrote: post #9

"using the bathroom" will be the least of what they're watching people do. Anyone wearing these glasses (or similar) should know that all of the audio/video picked up by the glasses will be watched and analyzed by others, likely by AI as well. Just like the entire point of facebook is to spy on people and profit from that data, the entire point of these devices is to spy on people in ways that the facebook app doesn'…

Great if I wear sunglasses at the public pool people think I'm a nonce filming kids.

Sunglasses, no.

Meta RayBans, deservedly.

Re: Workers report watching Ray-Ban Meta-shot footage of people using the bathroom

#42

Post by munk-a »

jasonlotito wrote: post #38
anonym29 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>We consumers have no protection against big tech Stop buying it. You are not a robot that is forced to purchase a video doorbell or a robotic vacuum cleaner or a smart thermostat. You have free will. If you do not like a commercially available product, don't buy it, don't use it. It's that simple.

I think it's a reasonable ask that when buying a product, it has reasonable levels of safety, security, and privacy. Especially with products that might change over time because of software updates. Yes, there are ToS, but it's fine for us as a society to say that consumers deserve more protection against big tech so we aren't a TOS update away from having everything shared or be used for something that wasn't promot…

There's compelling reasons for all sorts of home devices to be connected to the internet[1] but the rub is that ToS flexibility and software updates make this a backdoor waiting to happen. I feel like our legal system has significantly failed us by not empowering the consume to say "I accept your device with a wifi antenna for the purposes of updating and I reject any exfiltration of personal data from it to your servers". You can have such a contract written - but this is really a place where something like a consumer advocacy board should step in and make sure those rights and sanely guaranteed.

1. It'd be great to ease the method for updating, it'd be nice to be able to easily monitor the device especially if it could become active in some manner while you're absent (I don't want the stove turning on to broil right after I leave on a three month vacation)

Re: Workers report watching Ray-Ban Meta-shot footage of people using the bathroom

#43

Post by anonym29 »

jasonlotito wrote: post #38
anonym29 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>We consumers have no protection against big tech Stop buying it. You are not a robot that is forced to purchase a video doorbell or a robotic vacuum cleaner or a smart thermostat. You have free will. If you do not like a commercially available product, don't buy it, don't use it. It's that simple.

I think it's a reasonable ask that when buying a product, it has reasonable levels of safety, security, and privacy. Especially with products that might change over time because of software updates. Yes, there are ToS, but it's fine for us as a society to say that consumers deserve more protection against big tech so we aren't a TOS update away from having everything shared or be used for something that wasn't promot…

Just to clarify, I don't mean what I said in a manner hostile to consumers, I mean what I said in a manner hostile to abusive corporations. Let them either adapt to market demand for better products (which we demonstrate by not continuing to buy their current garbage), or let them (the corporations) starve and die if they refuse to.

Stop feeding the parasites.

Re: Workers report watching Ray-Ban Meta-shot footage of people using the bathroom

#44

Post by autoexec »

pseudocomposer wrote: post #16
simmerup wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And now realise the same is true for your robot vacuum, car camera, doorbell camera, etc etc We consumers have no protection against big tech

We definitely don’t have any hard boundaries baked into this tech preventing big tech from (ab)using our data this way. But are there specific companies you think are doing this? I think with Meta products, it’s been rather obvious for a long time. But I’ve had a Nest doorbell camera and thermostats for years, and first iRobot and now Roborock vacuums, and they don’t really seem so suspect.

You should assume that Google is collecting every scrap of data they can from nest products and that your data will (or could) be handed over to police and the state with or without warrants and with zero notice to you. There were concerns raised with irobot devices selling the floorplans of your home (https://gizmodo.com/roombas-next-big-step-is-selling-maps-of...) and now its owned by China (Picea) so who knows what they're doing. Roborock is also a Chinese company who appears to have been under investigation in Korea for data leaks (https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/2025-03-05/busines...).

At this point I'd consider anything not locally hosted (and certainly anything owned by Google, Amazon, or facebook) to be highly suspect.

Re: Workers report watching Ray-Ban Meta-shot footage of people using the bathroom

#45

Post by munk-a »

anonym29 wrote: post #37
nervysnail wrote: post #11

[flagged]

Violence isn't the answer. Handheld IR/non-visible-wavelength LiDAR systems that permanently fry CMOS image sensors are. If state laws permit the capture of light, let them capture light. Light has no spectrum allocation laws, no license required to emit, and as long as you're not disturbing anyone (e.g. with deliberately obnoxious use of visible wavelengths), you're not breaking any laws. LiDAR operators do not have…

As much as I'd like a quick hack to disable raybands recording me - that feels like a pretty slam dunk case of destruction of property.

Re: Workers report watching Ray-Ban Meta-shot footage of people using the bathroom

#46

Post by autoexec »

anonym29 wrote: post #35
simmerup wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And now realise the same is true for your robot vacuum, car camera, doorbell camera, etc etc We consumers have no protection against big tech

>We consumers have no protection against big tech Stop buying it. You are not a robot that is forced to purchase a video doorbell or a robotic vacuum cleaner or a smart thermostat. You have free will. If you do not like a commercially available product, don't buy it, don't use it. It's that simple.

> Stop buying it

That's my policy, but there's a sucker born every minute and they are buying these products so anytime you are in or near their homes or anywhere a microphone or camera can see you (even one mounted on some idiot's head) you're at risk. Even worse, both people and corporations typically don't disclose their use of those devices when you enter their homes/businesses either.

Re: Workers report watching Ray-Ban Meta-shot footage of people using the bathroom

#47

Post by gus_massa »

miltonlost wrote: post #32
paxys wrote: post #17

How many times will the same report be regurgitated and reposted? There is nothing added here that the original source didn't cover already ( https://www.svd.se/a/K8nrV4/metas-ai-smart-glasses-and-data-... ). Read that instead of the derivative blogspam.

Can that original source be reposted on HN within a short timespan or will it be deleted/comments moved? How then would this report gain more traction if only allowed once?

From a comment by ChrisArchitect somewhere in this thread:

> [dupe] Discussion on source: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47225130 .

More info: 1439 points | 6 days ago | 838 comments

Re: Workers report watching Ray-Ban Meta-shot footage of people using the bathroom

#48

Post by john_strinlai »

expedition32 wrote: post #36
autoexec wrote: post #9

"using the bathroom" will be the least of what they're watching people do. Anyone wearing these glasses (or similar) should know that all of the audio/video picked up by the glasses will be watched and analyzed by others, likely by AI as well. Just like the entire point of facebook is to spy on people and profit from that data, the entire point of these devices is to spy on people in ways that the facebook app doesn'…

Great if I wear sunglasses at the public pool people think I'm a nonce filming kids.

>nonce

today i learned this word has a definition outside of cryptography. it appears to be UK slang for pedophile.

Re: Workers report watching Ray-Ban Meta-shot footage of people using the bathroom

#49

Post by calgoo »

munk-a wrote: post #45
anonym29 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Violence isn't the answer. Handheld IR/non-visible-wavelength LiDAR systems that permanently fry CMOS image sensors are. If state laws permit the capture of light, let them capture light. Light has no spectrum allocation laws, no license required to emit, and as long as you're not disturbing anyone (e.g. with deliberately obnoxious use of visible wavelengths), you're not breaking any laws. LiDAR operators do not have…

As much as I'd like a quick hack to disable raybands recording me - that feels like a pretty slam dunk case of destruction of property.

Just attach a camera to your device and say you where recording in public just like them, no seam to have an issue with that. Your system was just measuring the distance to the target using lidar :)

Re: Workers report watching Ray-Ban Meta-shot footage of people using the bathroom

#50

Post by simmerup »

Semaphor wrote: post #15
simmerup wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And now realise the same is true for your robot vacuum, car camera, doorbell camera, etc etc We consumers have no protection against big tech

Sure you do. All of those are available in local versions without Internet. You just need to care enough, be able to afford them (while my vacuum has no camera, it requires the cloud, but it was significantly cheaper than a local or hackable one), and have the ability to self host something like home assistant.

How about we just enforce minimum privacy standards on big tech instead?

Sure you can root all your own hardware but you can’t stop the fact that your walk down the street is documented by Amazon and Google front door bells

There is no opt out of this surveillance if you live in modern society

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