Documents obtained exclusively by The Guardian reveal that law enforcement agencies from Maine to California are expressing concern over Meta’s camera-equipped smart glasses, citing fears they could be utilized for unauthorized surveillance of officers or to facilitate terrorist activities.
In January, the counterterrorism unit of the New York Police Department issued a memo alerting officers to a emerging “security and counterintelligence” threat posed by Ray-Ban Meta glasses. The directive instructed personnel to perform thorough inspections of all eyewear allowed into inmate holding cells.
Officials warned that arrested individuals could exploit the devices’ built-in cameras and microphones to capture video and audio inside police facilities. The memo referenced two specific instances where such recordings had already been posted on social media platforms, underscoring the tangible risk to operational security.
Two cases already posted online? I guess we underestimated how easy it is to hide a camera in plain sight.
Secretly recording officers is dangerous, but banning them in stations seems like an overreaction to technology.