AI Wearables Face Privacy Reckoning as Smart Glasses Spread
Privacy concerns over AI-powered glasses and recorders are testing the next big bet in consumer tech, with Meta in court and Samsung preparing its own launch.
Tech companies racing to build the next major computing platform are confronting a growing privacy backlash that could determine how quickly always-on devices win mainstream acceptance.
The unease has centred on Meta's Ray-Ban smart glasses, which brought the category into the mainstream by combining EssilorLuxottica's designs with the company's AI. The frames have drawn lawsuits, user complaints about covert recording and warnings from critics about eroding expectations of anonymity and consent. Several UK venues, including the pub chain Wetherspoon, have restricted their use.
Meta is expected to unveil camera-free smart glasses as early as Wednesday at its Connect conference, according to media reports — a sign of the balancing act facing firms chasing a share of a smartphone market worth more than $600 billion.
Device makers are experimenting with a range of form factors, from glasses and pins to pendants and phone-mounted recorders, according to interviews with technology executives, analysts and legal experts. Some are finding faster uptake among businesses than consumers.
Samsung plans to enter the smart-glasses market later this year through partnerships with Gentle Monster and Warby Parker, though it does not see the devices as replacements for smartphones. Jay Kim, an executive vice president in Samsung's mobile division, said the winning designs will be those that make interaction "more natural, useful and trusted," adding that users will demand systems that remain secure and under their control.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has argued that always-on devices capable of understanding a user's surroundings will ultimately need to process data locally rather than constantly sending it to the cloud. "If a device is going to be listening to your whole life and watching your whole life, most people will not want that running on a cloud server," he said, adding that local processing may take a couple of years longer depending on how quickly the company can scale its processors.
The central tension, experts say, is that AI devices become more useful as they gather more information about their surroundings — including footage of people who never consented to being recorded.
A lawsuit against Meta and Luxottica of America alleges misleading privacy claims. Ryan Clarkson, whose firm represents the consumers, said human annotators viewed and labelled recordings of people changing clothes, using bathrooms and handling financial information after footage was uploaded to Meta's servers to train its AI systems. Those recorded often appeared unaware they were being filmed, he said.
Meta said a light that cannot be turned off during filming protects bystanders, and that the camera is disabled if the light is covered or tampered with. The company said it disagrees with the allegations and will contest them, adding that reviewing user data to improve products is common industry practice and that it filters out identifying information. Luxottica and OpenAI did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Some companies are betting on camera-free designs. Shenzhen-based Even Realities, founded by former Apple engineer Will Wang, introduced its camera-free G1 glasses in 2024 and launched the G2 in November 2025. Wang said consumers increasingly associate smart glasses with covert recording and that cameras should wait until stronger safeguards are in place. The company, valued at $1 billion in July, expects to end the year with a few hundred thousand users, about 90% of them consumers.
San Francisco-based Pocket is betting that a phone-mounted recorder requiring a button press can ease concerns around audio-only devices. It said about 170,000 devices were in use eight months after launch, including at firms such as DoorDash, Michelin and Santander. Plaud, which sells card-shaped and wearable AI recorders, has prioritised privacy with a $249.99 earbud-and-case system that records only when activated and alerts bystanders through lights or an audio announcement. It has 2.5 million users and more than $100 million in annual recurring revenue.
Jitesh Ubrani, a director at research firm IDC, noted that smartphones faced similar unease when cameras and microphones became ubiquitous. "As a society, we want to make sure there's consent and awareness when people are being recorded," he said. "That's different from being opposed to recording altogether."