Texas (USA) opens an investigation against Meta’s smart glasses for privacy risks

Austin.- The Texas Attorney General’s Office opened an investigation this Wednesday against Meta’s smart glasses, the parent company of Facebook, for possible violations of the state’s privacy laws. In a statement, the state’s Attorney General, ultra-conservative Republican Ken Paxton, announced the opening of investigations due to concerns about the technology’s ability to capture audio and video of individuals irregularly. The glasses, which Meta launched in collaboration with the Ray-Ban brand in 2023, incorporate artificial intelligence and come equipped with a camera, speakers, microphone, and an LED light that turns on to indicate that they are recording. However, the prosecutor indicated, it is possible to hide the light in an “easy way” and it does not turn on when the glasses are in constant recording mode.

Paxton’s Pulse with Meta

“Meta’s glasses raise serious concerns, and my office will thoroughly investigate these devices to ensure that no person is being recorded, tracked, or subjected to the unauthorized collection of their data illegally,” Paxton indicated.

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The investigation against smart glasses comes a little less than two years after Facebook agreed to pay about $1.4 billion to the state of Texas in response to a lawsuit accusing the company of using its users’ biometric data without their consent. The resource that led to that agreement was also presented by Paxton, who seeks to be elected next week as the Republican candidate to face Democrat James Talarico in the elections for a Texas Senate seat scheduled for November.