Smart glasses have always asked people around the wearer to trust a tiny light. Meta has strengthened that safeguard on its Ray-Ban glasses, including blocking cameras when someone tampers with the capture LED. Now, a handful of owners are raising a different concern: Their glasses may be listening when they were never asked to.
In two Reddit threads, a Ray-Ban Meta owner says three separate pairs, spanning second- and third-generation models, captured ordinary conversations without the “Hey Meta” wake phrase. Apparently, those interactions appeared in the Meta AI app as saved audio recordings and text transcripts, even though “Respond without Hey Meta” was disabled. The owner also says the glasses’ internal notification light sometimes activated during normal conversation and that the behavior began after a recent firmware update.
