Mark Zuckerberg isn’t too concerned about the nefarious use of his company’s Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses.
In an interview with NBC News, Mark Zuckerberg was pressed about people labeling the popular accessory as “pervert glasses” and reported deactivating the light indicator that lets people know that the glasses are recording or snapping a photo.
Zuckerberg largely dismissed the claims by pointing out how few people were engaging in the “perverted” behavior with his glasses.
Per Intelligencer:
Zuckerberg said such tampering is rare; he estimated that less than 0.1 percent of users have attempted to alter them (which, obviously, is not the same as zero). “So it’s a very small fraction,” he said. “Whenever you’re building any of these platforms, there’s some kind of adversarial games where some people try to do bad stuff, and we’re always going to be defending against that.” He also insisted that Meta deactivates the accounts of customers who have tried to hack their glasses.
Regarding the smart wearable being called “pervert glasses,” Zuckerberg also downplayed it, adding, “It’s, I think, something that will be under control and doesn’t seem to really be affecting how people feel about the glasses overall.”
It’s unclear how much his words will instill confidence in anyone, given his company’s history. There is currently a class action lawsuit against Meta claiming “workers at a Kenya-based subcontractor [were] reviewing footage from customers’ glasses, which included sensitive content, like nudity, people having sex, and using the toilet.”
According to the report, Meta claimed people’s faces were blurred, but some sources close to the matter said that was not the case.
Mark Zuckerberg Hypes Up His New Ray-Ban Meta Audio Smart Glasses
Zuckerberg also brought up the company’s new Ray-Ban Meta Audio glasses, which don’t have a built-in camera, telling reporter Joanna Stern they weren’t made in response to people’s concerns.
“We didn’t decide to design this in two months because some people had some questions a couple months ago,” Zuckerberg said. “Some people are going to want the lightest and slimmest thing or for the cheapest price, and audio-only glasses allow you to do that by taking all of the other sensors out. You can just make something that is slim, that just looks basically indistinguishable from non-AI glasses.”
Basically, this sounds like classic Zuckerberg, a man oblivious to anything negative about him.