Meta's Glasses Will Turn Off the Camera If You Tamper With the Privacy Light
3 72Meta is rolling out an update that will disable the camera on its smart glasses if the device detects that someone has tampered with or destroyed the privacy LED. "The update is meant to address modders who have taken actions such as physically drilling into the LED light," reports The Verge.
"Meta has previously tried to discourage tampering with the LED light. For example, starting with its second generation glasses, blocking the light with tape or other objects will trigger a prompt asking users to uncover the recording light. However, many modders have found various workarounds for that particular measure."
3 comments
Meta tracks you even without an account (Score: 5, Informative)
by david.emery ( 127135 ) on Wednesday July 08, 2026 @05:46PM (#66228904)
BUT Meta also tracks people who have never had an account with them, on the off chance "they might later opt-in". See https://cyberguy.com/security/... [cyberguy.com]
So the original poster's question is legitimate, especially for those who have never opted-in to any Meta product.
Re:I'm sure. (Score: 5, Interesting)
by Nkwe ( 604125 ) on Wednesday July 08, 2026 @07:13PM (#66229048)
They could flicker the LED in some random pattern and then look for corresponding lighting level changes in the images captured. The flicker could be fast enough that it wouldn't appear to flicker to a human.
Not based on mirror (Score: 5, Informative)
by brunes69 ( 86786 ) on <slashdot@noSpAm.keirstead.org> on Wednesday July 08, 2026 @09:06PM (#66229186)
The way the tech works is the camera in the glasses itself is looking for the extra light coming from the LED, which is of a very specific frequency. If the light is not picked up by the camera within the first second of video, then the glasses are disabled. In this way, you can't disable the light, or cover it with tape, or drill it, or anything else - because if the camera can not see it, then the glasses shut off