Facebook ‘spy glasses’: Australia’s privacy watchdog investigates Ray-Ban Stories over camera concerns

Australia’s privacy watchdog is investigating Facebook smartglasses that can film people without “awareness or consent”.

Facebook is being asked questions about its smartglasses, produced with Ray-Ban, that have two cameras installed on their frame. Picture: Ray-Ban and Facebook / AFP

Exclusive: Australia’s privacy watchdog is investigating whether Facebook’s hidden-camera sunglasses could be used to spy on individuals “without their awareness or consent” and whether the technology should be sold in Australia at all.

The tech giant’s videorecording sunglasses, created in conjunction with Ray-Ban, were unveiled late last week, promising to surreptitiously record photos and video to be shared on social media.

But their design has been questioned by privacy experts, including the Australian Privacy Commissioner, as there is little to indicate they are equipped with two cameras, while other social media experts say their launch opens “a Pandora’s box” of privacy and legal questions.

Facebook's Ray Ban Stories smart glasses. Source: Supplied.

Australian Information Commissioner and Privacy Commissioner Angelene Falk said her office questioned the social media giant following the launch about whether it had “conducted a privacy impact assessment,” and she was wary of risks the unorthodox cameras could pose to bystanders.

“I am concerned about products that have the potential to covertly collect personal and sensitive information about Australians without their awareness or consent,” Ms Falk said.

“While we have become accustomed to people using smartphones to take images in public places, photographing or filming people through a camera located in sunglasses can more easily occur without being obvious.

“It’s not clear what steps Facebook has taken to mitigate the impact on Australians’ privacy.”

Ms Falk said the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) was also working with international privacy regulators to assess the impact of Facebook’s latest device, and said all companies launching new technology products should “take account of their privacy obligations as well as community expectations around privacy”.

Angelene Falk, Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, has issued questions to Facebook about its smartglasses. Picture: Kym Smith

Facebook’s videorecording sunglasses have also come under scrutiny from Italy’s data protection agency, Garante, that asked the company to clarify its privacy protections, including help for children filmed using the glasses, while Amnesty International questioned Ray-Ban’s involvement in a project with “a surveillance advertising company”.

Facebook’s sunglasses come equipped with five-megapixel cameras on either edge of their frame that can be used to capture photos and videos.

A small LED sits above the lenses on both sides and lights up when the glasses are recording video, though reviewers have shown the light can be covered up using masking tape and a black pen.

At launch, Facebook said it would issue guidelines for the use of the glasses as “we need to proactively educate people on how to use Ray-Ban Stories smart glasses safely and responsibly, both for their own protection and that of others around them”.

But Swinburne University social media senior lecturer Dr Belinda Barnet said Facebook’s smartglasses represented “a Pandora’s box of privacy issues” and its safeguards seemed designed to protect people using the glasses but not the people in front of them.

“For the user they seem to have been quite careful but I’m worried about the people who didn’t buy the glasses but happen to be in the same shopping complex while people are wearing them,” Dr Barnet said.

“They don’t look like cameras and if someone walks up to you holding their camera out you’d be wary but with these you’re not going to know about it.”

Facebook’s smartglasses release is the second time the OAIC has raised concerns about the social media giant after launching a lawsuit against the company over claims it breached the Privacy Act by exposing data belonging to 311,127 Australian users between 2014 and 2015.

The highly personal information was allegedly sold to shady political firm Cambridge Analytica in a scandal that rocked the tech industry.

Originally published as Facebook ‘spy glasses’: Australia’s privacy watchdog investigates Ray-Ban Stories over camera concerns