Dutch eyewear chain pauses Meta glasses sales amid privacy concerns

Hans Anders, a major Dutch eyewear retailer, has temporarily halted the sale of Meta's Ray-Ban smart glasses in the Netherlands and Belgium due to mounting privacy concerns. This move comes as part of an ongoing public and political debate regarding the use of smart glasses and the ethical implications of their technology. The decision echoes a larger backlash against smart glasses equipped with cameras.

The controversy has seen other entities take action as well. In the United Kingdom, pub chain Wetherspoon has limited the use of Meta's smart glasses due to fears about covert recording. Meta and Luxottica, the parent company of Ray-Ban, are currently facing a lawsuit in the United States, alleging that videos captured by the smart glasses were viewed by human annotators without the consent of the people filmed.

Meta has emphasized that they are still developing the popular glasses. Each pair with a camera features a bright light on the front that blinks when a photo or video is taken, which cannot be turned off. The camera is disabled if someone covers or interferes with it. The Dutch privacy regulator AP recently cautioned that videos made with smart glasses showing identifiable people cannot generally be shared or published without the subject's permission, a task that would be challenging in public settings.

A consumer rights group, Consumentenbond, has threatened to take legal action against Meta unless the company modifies the glasses to meet privacy standards.

Additionally, a group called Offlimits has urged Meta and Ray-Ban's parent company, EssilorLuxottica, to voluntarily remove the smart glasses from sale until a solution is found to prevent surreptitious recordings. EssilorLuxottica has not yet responded to requests for comment.