Being filmed everywhere
Dear readers!
Imagine this: you’re at the pool or on the beach. Or perhaps you’re just walking through the park. Someone strikes up a conversation with you – maybe even flirts with you. What you don’t know is that you’re also being streamed live on Instagram and TikTok, because you’re standing in front of the lens of a pair of smart sunglasses. Friends then send you the video, in which some people are posting comments about your body. Sounds like a dystopia? But it’s already a reality today.
There’s even a word now for people who share videos of you without asking: ‘Rizzfluencer’. ‘Rizz’ is a slang term for charisma, which is completely inappropriate here. This is nothing less than an invasion of privacy and self-determination.
The more widespread these glasses become, the more reports there are of people being filmed without their consent, even in the toilet or whilst having sex. No wonder Meta is leading the way with its ‘Meta Ray-Ban’. When it comes to the violation of fundamental rights, Zuckerberg’s Meta always seems to be right at the forefront. After all, you’d hardly know from looking at the glasses that they contain this technology. And even the small white LED, which is actually supposed to indicate that recording is taking place, can easily be tampered with and, depending on the lighting conditions, is quickly overlooked – whether intentionally or not.
Alongside such deliberate and overt abuses, an incident also made the headlines in which a subcontractor in Kenya – whom Meta uses to test and train its AI functions – was forced to view nude images captured by Meta’s glasses. Meta is already facing a class-action lawsuit in the US over this.
In the EU too, resistance is mounting against smart glasses. Whether it be data protection, digital laws or AI legislation, there are many EU laws which Meta’s glasses – and those of similar companies – quite clearly breach. In the European Parliament, the European Commission must answer written questions from MEPs. The European Data Protection Board (EDPB) has set up its own working group on the subject and intends to publish an initial report this summer. The Irish Data Protection Authority, which is responsible for Meta, has also launched an investigation. Its French counterpart has issued a very strong warning about the glasses: they pose a “significant risk” of normalising surveillance and could “lead to a profound transformation of our societies” (Netzpolitik.org reports on this).
In doing so, they highlight the systemic risk of this technology: the uncertainty as to whether one is being filmed at any given moment leads to the normalisation of surveillance through habituation. It is not only in authoritarian states that this can and will be used to restrict civil liberties. This uncertainty also leads to a so-called “chilling effect”, meaning that we adapt our behaviour as if we were constantly being observed and recorded. This is a dangerous development, particularly for civil society, but also for all of us, as it severely restricts our freedom.
That is why it is good that the European institutions are now addressing this issue. What really worries me, however, is the lack of awareness of the problem at the top: Roberta Metsola, the President of the European Parliament, visited Mark Zuckerberg in Silicon Valley at the end of May. In the background of the photo on her Instagram post, pairs of Meta Ray-Bans are neatly draped (see also the cover image of this email). Does Metsola criticise the all-too-easy abuse of these glasses? Does she address this and, as President of the European Parliament, clearly stand up for citizens’ rights? Unfortunately not.
It is now high time that Metsola and other high-ranking EU officials stop cosying up to Meta and co. and take a firm stand against mass surveillance and abuse.
I am campaigning for this together with our Greens/EFA Group in the European Parliament. You too can help by forwarding this email to your contacts, so that even more people are aware of the issue in the first place.
Thank you very much for your support.
Yours, Alexandra Geese
–
P.S.: Netzpolitik.org has published an excellent summary of the technical details and the criticism here. Recommended reading for anyone who wants to know more (in German).