Anna Colom
Dan YorkFirst time seeing a “NO META GLASSES” sign in the door of a shop! I’m not surprised… and I expect we might see more of these kind of things in the years ahead.
Nazo
J MillerAt a local art and craft fair last year, I saw several signs that photos were not allowed. (Those of you who go to more events like this have probably seen a lot more of these signs...) I assume this was people trying to avoid having cheap copies of their creations mass produced. Not sure how effective that was for them, but Meta glasses can only be making the situation worse.
Starraven
Spirit@starraven @danyork If you brought it into a public restroom to record you might even make a sex offender registry.
How about respecting private property and following the rules of the establishment. Or is that too challenging.
Dave Rahardja@starraven Problem solved.
ClickyMcTicker@starraven @Spirit @danyork They took precautions against your potential harms towards them. I think them not having to worry about having you as a customer was the point of the sign.
@ClickyMcTicker @starraven @Spirit To be clear, I do not have Meta glasses. I was merely walking by a store that had this sign in the window.
Andy H@danyork @ClickyMcTicker @starraven @Spirit Don't think the reply was aimed at you. 👍 This whole thing is Google Glass repeated. 😔
Molly in Missouri
Me 🐶
meanidea 🇹🇼🇺🇦🇨🇦🇩🇰@danyork This probably less about the privacy of their workers and more about preventing pricing research.
Daniele Pantaleo 🦥
@danyork guess you missed the "no glassholes" movement back in 2014
https://hackaday.com/2014/06/05/fight-the-google-glass-cyborgs-with-glasshole-sh/
Cyon Ennex 🏳️⚧️@danyork
Respect
Respect
lost_in_chaos
O.VoãoI feel pity for the lost souls that have to take off their prescription meta ray bans at this shop, and are forced to blindstumble through the aisles trying to fingerguess what they're holding. "Errr... Excuse me, how much is this banana?" "Sir, this a sex shop not a grocery store."
Antonio Patriarca@ovoao @danyork There are many places that do not allow any recording (any military place, cinemas...), and I do not feel at ease when in front of someone using them. I am sure many other people feel similar distress in front of a potentially always-on camera that sends data to Meta. If they decided to ignore other people's privacy and feelings when buying their only prescription lenses, why should I feel pity if they are kicked out of some places?
Bent Chinrest@ovoao @danyork I don't. I'm extremely near-sighted. Like, "dangerous to walk a residential sidewalk" without corrective lenses.
My eyeglasses cost USD700+ *for the lenses*
I struggle to gin up any sympathy for someone casually dropping USD1400 on a vanity-trifle like Meta glasses
As for the accessibility and disability angle, if we're re-ordering society to accommodate corporate spying, we could just take a crack at being better to humans all around
AdeptVeritatis
Hans Zelf 🇪🇺🌻@danyork I run an app on my phone that sounds an alarm whenever meta glasses come near me.
Draken BlackKnight@hans_zelf @danyork is there a similar app that finds and alerts of audio recorders nearby uploading the audio to some AI service?
@hans_zelf @Ecazar Interesting… I wonder if someone will start offering a scanning device that shops (and other locations) could start using. 🤔
LukefromDCIf this was my shop, I would keep the sign but add an "except blind customers" note to it. Someone doing price research (an adverse party) has lots of cheaper and harder to detect spy cam options.
Allowing this use would however require having nothing in the shop that could put me or another person in danger if passed to Meta.
Use of these glasses by a sighted person I consider absolutely intolerable. On the other hand, any thing that can pass visual data to someone who has lost use of their eyes might be the difference between being their able to continue their life or not.
Someone needs to come up with a hack to allow blind folks to use these as eyes without passing data around them to Meta, who is sure to abuse it.
This could be done either of two ways. One is to hack the firmware to connect to an activist-owned server that does not store user data instead of Meta. Store only maps from OpenStreetMap etc, and process the video with a program that can identify clear corridors indoors and send that data back to the user. Do not store it.
The other approach would be to use a connection to a local computer with enough processing power to turn raw video into navigational directions. Hopefully a laptop in a backpack could not handle that.
Problem with a special version of these glasses sold for use by the blind would be sale (and thus PRICING) as "medical devices." Nobody would be able to afford them. Also zero advantage if the data is still handled by a corporate server.
A hacked set of these on the other hand, connected to a phone or laptop to run the software instead of sending it to Meta, and maybe inscribed text on the glasses saying "I am blind-these are my eyes" could do wonders.
RastaThere already is an APP to help the blind with what is in front of them, but it's not fed to a META server. once Meta sold your data once, paid the fine, and did it again, why would anyone trust them ever? There are existing APPS. I get anonymous BE MY EYES messages, like, are these pants clean, or which is the button for this feature?
I have no idea who, or where I am helping, I just answer them when they are directed to me, including a description of their surroundings. Don't sell your soul to META, and Cambridge Analytical And Palantir
and police depts, or ICE agents..
Rev. Dr. Mazigazi@danyork a simple “no assholes” sign does the same thing
Frang 
Wiredfire@frang @danyork I agree with the sentiment BUT do consider that tech like this is utterly *transformative* for those with visual impairments. Was speaking with a guy the other day with a form of macular degeneration and it had given him so much. Not that that’s why they exist, but let’s not be ignorant of the minority for which these can be incredible.
Now if only we could get the tech from places that aren’t abusive of the data collected..
bignose@wiredfire
> Now if only we could get the tech from places that aren’t abusive of the data collected.
Yes. And until that is reliably achieved for all people, we must not allow their use where people have not actively consented to a privacy-hostile corporation recording them, no matter how transformative it is for one person.
Glossy@wiredfire @frang @danyork to be fair the sign says to ask first so with an ask and a bit of explanation I'm sure a reasonable compromise can be made.
@B22_SSS @frang @danyork kinda - it says to ask before taking pictures (absolutely right) but still a hard no on smart glasses, which I totally get. Of course if they had “except for those with visual impairments” suddenly everyone would claim they’re blind and asking people to prove it is wobbly ground(!).
As I say, I just hope the pioneering of the tech can move into a space where it can be genuinely helpful to people rather than make glorious stakeholder profit 😒
@wiredfire @frang @danyork I think everyone claiming they're blind just to get around the rule is mostly an american problem as people in Europe & the UK are generally better about such things.
I can agree that big corpo needs to stop doing a lot for the betterment of shareholders rather than customers/users though I can see how beneficial the technology is for the disabled.
Insufferable fools are everywhere though they are (for now at least) the minority.
feliks✨
@danyork available on wikipedia
Ximaar@danyork @feliks I assist someone who is fully blind. Last year het got hold of second hand Orcam (camera as glasses) system. It reads texts and describes objects and persons. But it is from Israel and how do we know it is not tracing and sending info to Israel?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0B5pW0xjd4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0B5pW0xjd4
Israeli Life-Changing Technology - Orcam
Raul Portales@danyork if you've been around long enough, you do remember the "Glassholes" when Google glass was originally unveiled back in 2013
Flaming Cheeto@danyork We obviously don't frequent the same strip clubs
synlogic4242@danyork I'd feel more comfortable seeing a fellow customer in a restaurant with holstered pistol than I would than one wearing those panopticon goggles. safer
`Da Elf@danyork FAcebook was founded on the idea of being creepy as fuck and stalking folk.
Creepy as fuck.
Mark is a voyeur, always has been.
So this is just more of the same.
• Łącze@danyork people buying these are ot considering such circumstances where their (precious) consumer choices aren't sacrosanct to all others
And now they're getting these things with prescription lenses, so removing them becomes onerous and "unreasonable"
And now they're getting these things with prescription lenses, so removing them becomes onerous and "unreasonable"
Lstn2urmama4@danyork for starters WHAT are Meta glasses or anything Meta for that matter ???
No one is going to pay attention to something unknown ...🤔
Ben S.@Lstn2urmama4 @danyork search engines still exist in 2026 to answer these questions.
@Lstn2urmama4 @danyork it doesn't look like a conversation to me, it looks like you barged into someone else's post and demanded that they spoon-feed you more context, but okay.
@HunterZ your idea of a demand is not even real when one does an inquiry ...
@Lstn2urmama4 Fair point… but I suspect anyone who is buying a pair of these knows that they are “Meta glasses”.
But… since other companies are developing them, there is probably a need for thinking more like a category - “no smart glasses” or something like that.
(With a caveat for the use for accessibility / disability)
@danyork sorry not understanding what is special about those glasses....
❄️SnowyIn❄️ 🇨🇦🚫🦻If you own a pair you would know to pat attention to the sign, if not then ignore it.
edit: "Meta" is the company that owns Facebook, Instagram and more...
That's why I sent you the article. : )