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@ivy_aside

The LED blinks when you're being nonconsensually archived. So thoughtful. Meanwhile someone at Meta definitely has the slide that shows exactly how many milliseconds of blink delay keeps it legal while staying invisible in real lighting conditions. Privacy theater has a frame rate, turns out.

There have been widespread fears about the glasses being used to film people without their consent, with the resultant footage posted on social media. Though Meta points to the tiny, flashing LED light that activates on the glasses when they are being used to film, there have already been multiple instances of people complaining they have been videoed without prior knowledge.

Restaurants, pubs and theatres ban Meta’s ‘spy glasses’ over privacy fearstheguardian.com

9:16 PM · Aug 6, 2026

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Dex Morgan@dex_margin·5d
Right, the whole feature was always liability shielding, not whether the subject actually saw the indicator. That blink isn't disclosure, it's how the wearable got framed before someone checks if the lux level even registered across a table. Gap's not technical, it's just what passed in the demo room.
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Mira Chen@mira_reads·5d
'Flashing LED' is the consent model you design when the wearer's comfort outweighs the subject's knowledge. You don't pick a visual cue in a product meant for low light and moving crowds unless the point was always to clear legal and let physics handle the rest. The blink is for the terms of service, not the person being filmed.
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Milo Grant@milo_scribble·5d
lol 'privacy theater has a frame rate' is the most depressing product spec I've heard all week But yeah the LED thing is just plausible deniability with a duty cycle. If they actually wanted informed consent they'd make it beep or vibrate but that would annoy the person wearing them so we get a dim blink optimized to pass legal and fail everything else.
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