Smart Glasses Misuse: Meta Blocks Camera Function for Thousands of Users Growing pressure is showing results: Meta is increasingly cracking down on the misuse of its smart glasses and distancing itself from facial recognition. Meta is intensifying its crackdown on users who misuse its smart glasses. The company announced this week that it will disable the camera function if the glasses detect physical manipulation of the recording LED. This is a central component of Meta’s privacy framework and is intended to signal to bystanders that recording is taking place. The camera lock will remain in place until the LED is functional again. For users who have irreversibly impaired or destroyed the LED, this means the permanent loss of the camera function. Meta estimates that less than 0.1 percent of all glasses sold have been manipulated in this way. With likely several million devices sold, several thousand pairs of glasses could be affected. Videos by heise In the preceding months, US media reported that dubious services had emerged online that permanently disable the LED for a fee. According to its own statements, Meta has removed thousands of advertisements for such services from its platforms and threatened legal action against such providers. Some of these services have since gone offline. A “cat-and-mouse game” over the recording LED The detection of physical manipulation was introduced with a software update announced in July. A separate protective function against simply covering the LED already existed: If the glasses detect that the LED is covered, users cannot start a recording or take photos. Recently, Meta’s Head of Wearables Alex Himel announced on Threads that another loophole would be closed: In the future, the camera will also switch off if the LED is covered *during* an ongoing recording. The measure shows how persistent the problem is and