this post was submitted on 28 Sep 2023
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You seriously think it wouldn't be trivial to disable the LED?
And by the time you notice the LED you've already been filmed.
It would be trivial to just buy spy cameras already built for spying. The tech already exists
Buddy, have you been on Aliexpress recently? It's trivial to wire tiny cameras all over your body if you really wanted.
Not that it matters, I can point an 8K cinema camera at you in public, and you don't legally get a say.
This isn't the case everywhere. Some places have laws with likeness rights if you try to use the footage in commercial productions.
Two-party consent states also attach legal consequences to secret voice recordings.
This is strictly legally speaking. People can and do violate the law.
New art project!
The LED detects when it is blocked and the device refuses to function until it is unblocked. So no, working around that won't be trivial, at least until somebody has found a workaround.
If Meta wanted to be really throughout with this, they could also keep record of how often there is an issue with the LED and brick the device and close your account if they detect tempering. The whole "trivial to disable" doesn't fly in a world of closed ecosystem, locked down hardware and accounts requiring a real ID.
Also you can get spy cameras for $5 from Aliexpress anyway, so why even bother hacking this. Snapchat has some video recording glasses too if one needs an alternative.
The led is a simple transistor that happens to glow, just replace it
Again you can record already without any led while "reading your messages" with your phone. Like I feel they did the expected and necessary.
Plus is not like there isn't already available pens, USB chargers, watches or whatever they can come up secret cameras, like if the intention was to secretly record somebody they wouldn't go with this ones disabling the led.... plenty of better less suspicious alternatives.
Ray ban have had them for years. I hate meta but it's not just them.
To be fair that was also a Facebook partnership. This is less news and more product revision
It took me a 3 second google search to find that it doesn't work with the LED covered.
By the time you notice someone's phone is out you've already been filmed. That's status quo these days, it isn't any creepier than every single person walking around with a camera in their pocket.