this post was submitted on 22 May 2026
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Privacy

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To be clear this is not a real product or whatever I would just be interested in people's thoughts.

Do you think you would like privacy focused smart goggles? Eg: no camera/hardware camera lock, all on device intelligence, signal support, idk what else you guys can leave ideas in the comments.

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[–] MrKoyun@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago

No such thing.

[–] the_abecedarian@piefed.social 37 points 1 week ago

nah. no way to know what strangers are doing with them

[–] libre_warrior@lemmy.ml 35 points 1 week ago (5 children)

Lets not normalize [smart] glasses.

[–] geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Why not? AR glasses which don't film the environment but just give a HUD would be rad.

[–] libre_warrior@lemmy.ml 16 points 1 week ago

Either we normalize smart glasses or we dont. There's nothing in between. We should not play into Metas surveillance strategy.

[–] FineCoatMummy@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 week ago

I'd say, b/c it's impossible to know that by looking at the glasses.

You see a rando walking around with smart glasses. You can't tell at a glance what it can / cannot do. So you must assume the worst.

I'm with Vegafjord oakframer. Normalization will be problematic. Maybe in a perfect world it coudl be OK. But in our world, abuse at scale is 100% inevitable. That's why I think social pressure against smart glasses is for the best.

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[–] actionjbone@sh.itjust.works 33 points 1 week ago (1 children)

There are no "privacy-focused" smart glasses. In fact, all of them are the exact opposite.

[–] Kirk@startrek.website 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

"I want a way to record the young ladies at the gym without Meta knowing about it"

[–] BeardedGingerWonder@feddit.uk 1 points 1 week ago

I'd like a hud, don't really care about cameras.

[–] LeapSecond@lemmy.zip 19 points 1 week ago

If smart glasses become mainstream you'll have many people wearing them in public. And you can choose privacy respecting glasses but most people will not. So maybe let's not make them mainstream.

[–] pound_heap@lemmy.dbzer0.com 17 points 1 week ago (7 children)

Smart glasses with HUD and speakers, and bluetooth, no cloud dependency - yes, please.

With camera - absolutely not. This would be just a hidden recording device, absolutely capable of intruding other's privacy, regardless if it's cloud connected or not. I realize that camera provides a lot of functionality, but I just don't see the way how it can preserve privacy of other people and fit in glasses form factor.

[–] pound_heap@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 1 week ago

Oh, and all that applies not just to camera, but also to microphone. Damn, such a good topic to talk about.

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[–] StumblingWasabi@lemmy.today 17 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I mostly just don't see the point in them. If the technology could run a live adblocker that would be a different story.

[–] SatyrSack@quokk.au 4 points 1 week ago

Literally Black Mirror

The special episode "White Christmas"

[–] bright@piefed.social 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

There's a bunch of good uses for them (but none that outweigh the privacy problems). For example when you look at someone you met before it can pop up info about them like their name, business relationship to you, topic interests you've talked about before, etc.

[–] North@lemmy.org 8 points 1 week ago (2 children)

That sounds very dystopian to me. Have we humans reached such a low that we need to be reminded of the person's name we are talking to even though we've met them before or business relationships, or what we talked with them?

The glasses I wear everyday which do not contain any kind of electronics already does its job perfectly. Smart Glasses are an unnecessary extra, created merely due to the rise of trend of 'en-smartify every product and implement it with unnecessary electronics and spyware.'

[–] FineCoatMummy@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

It is dystopian, for sure. That's why I don't want them to catch on. But I also can see valid uses in the spirit of what bright@piefed.social said.

Think about ppl with face blindness. Or those who are getting older with senility, and need a reminder of t heir relationship to the person they are talking to. Or technicians to reference up schematics or w/e while having both hands free for work. Maybe even surgeons, to get superhuman / synthetic senses.

Those feel like good uses. But... I can't imagine ANY way to have the good, without the much bigger privacy clusterfuck. So I don't want them to catch on as consumer devices. And I want social pressure against glassholes to continue. The good of the tech is real. But the dystopia will be too much, for too little gain.

[–] North@lemmy.org 2 points 1 week ago

I agree, it has uses but they're pretty niche. When I talked about how it's unnecessary for people, I meant normal people who don't have such niche needs or objective.

It is a brilliant tool only if it's used correctly.

[–] Kirk@startrek.website 2 points 1 week ago

Finally, we've invented a machine that saves mankind from the drudgery of getting to know other people!

[–] iByteABit@lemmy.ml 13 points 1 week ago

Keep the creep glasses where they belong, in the bottom of a garbage can

[–] Chais@sh.itjust.works 10 points 1 week ago

That there is an oxymoron.

[–] northernlights@lemmy.today 8 points 1 week ago

I would never trust them, no matter the claim.

[–] pierre_delecto@hexbear.net 8 points 1 week ago

It would be at best, privacy for the viewer/owner but not for the viewed. Why would you buy always seeing glasses to protect the privacy of those you see?

There is no such thing as a privacy respecting camera you are pointing at others.

normalize punching glassholes if you want privacy in a "smart glasses" world

[–] utopiah@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

There are some already, e.g. https://docs.brilliant.xyz/ with firmware you can replace or https://mentraglass.com/ and I even made one by sticking a RPi with its tiny camera on 3D printed frames https://twitter-archive.benetou.fr/utopiah/status/1449023602079240194/

I'm not saying it's a good idea or that it's private enough, just that it's not a theoretical questions, alternatives to Meta or Google Glass do exist already and some of them are not cloud dependent.

IMHO what's important is to be explicit about usage, understand how it's used and have informed consent. If you use them to be sneaky and hurt others, even if they are "privacy focused", fuck off.

[–] BingBong@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 week ago

No. Absolutely no interest in 24/7 being plugged in.

[–] Libb@piefed.social 5 points 1 week ago

I would like no smart glasses at all.

'Privacy focused focused smart glasses' sounds as credible as 'your friendly stalker neighbor'.

[–] NightFantom@slrpnk.net 5 points 1 week ago

I'd love a useful heads up display with things like navigation, search (as in, "where the fuck did I leave my keys, they should be in my field of view", not "what's the capital of italy"), and something like a dashcam, where you can retroactively playback the last X minutes if something happened, but otherwise it gets deleted automatically.

And nothing gets off the device without my consent of course.

[–] southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 week ago

My thought is that y'all will someday see on the news "old fucker on lemmy arrested for curb stomping some asshole with smart glasses that refused to respect his wish to not be filmed"

[–] defrostedLasagna4921@piefed.zip 5 points 1 week ago (3 children)

This is something I've been wanting, but with a camera. I take lots of videos on my phone everywhere I go, but I often miss moments and record too late. I think having glasses with a camera can make my life documenting easier.

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[–] yellerbadger@piefed.social 4 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I have some smart glasses with no camera and the option to use on device or cloud AI. They've been gathering dust though; they didn't add much to my life once the novelty wore off.

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[–] toomuchrdio@retrolemmy.com 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

if it has camera and does show time, calendar, txt files and image files through sd card, without internet connectivity, that would be enough for me

[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 week ago

I guess if only find it remotely fine if the glasses were very obviously equipped with a camera, bulky and what not.

If not, then its just a pedo cam a guy can use at a childrens playground

[–] francois@jlai.lu 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Even if I think there could be nice advantages using AR for specific use cases, for example in construction jobs, we should not invest in those technologies in any way as they would become more popular and reduce privacy overall

[–] musket528@sopuli.xyz 2 points 1 week ago

if you only use them at your home alone, that's fine

[–] pineapple@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 week ago

I don't need another source of distraction. My phone is distracting enough I don't need to have a HUD like that constantly.

[–] belated_frog_pants@beehaw.org 2 points 1 week ago

If they are screens for viewing something with no camera, that already exists. "Smart glasses" as they were are tools for creeps to video everyone against their will

[–] PierceTheBubble@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 week ago

Truly "privacy-focused" smart glasses wouldn't have gesture- or voice controls: because it wouldn't come with cameras nor microphones. It wouldn't allow ambiguity surrounding the ability, for these devices to collect personal data without consent: "trust me bro" toggle switches (controlled by the wearer) don't provide reasonable reassurance, to those in the vicinity of such sensors. Which would pretty much leave a heads-up display, which isn't something for me: I like clear separations between the digital and physical world, and this seeks to further blur that line; together with the obvious surveillance implications of course...

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