# AI glasses: what do they record, which settings matter, and what can I do if I'm filmed?

What camera glasses with a built-in assistant capture and where it goes, an owner's settings check, and what a bystander can do if they are filmed, with the reported privacy problems labelled.

Guides · v1.0 · draft · https://hayzlabs.com/guides/ai-glasses/

In short:
- Photos and videos stay on the glasses and phone until you share them, but asking the assistant about what you see sends it to the company.
- Owners: check the capture light, review voice recordings in the app, and ask before you film anyone.
- Filmed? Ask the wearer to delete it on the spot. If it is posted, report it to the platform as a privacy violation.

> [!NOT ADVICE]
> This page is general information, not legal advice. Laws on recording people, and on posting what you record, differ by country, state and venue. For a specific situation, check your local rules or ask a lawyer.

## Short answer

AI glasses (frames with a camera, microphones and a voice assistant) take photos and video and answer questions about what you are looking at. Meta, the biggest seller, says photos and videos stay on the glasses and your phone until you choose to share them, but anything you ask its assistant about, including what the camera sees, goes to Meta, and Meta says contractors sometimes review it. If you own a pair, check the capture light, review your voice recordings in the app and ask people before you film them. If someone films you, ask them to delete it there and then, and if it gets posted, report it to the platform.

**Who this is for.** Anyone thinking of buying a pair, anyone who owns one, and anyone who has noticed a pair pointed at them.

## What the glasses capture, and where it goes

Meta dominates this market. The Next Web (a tech news site) reported in May 2026 that Meta had sold "more than seven million pairs", a figure it attributes to EssilorLuxottica (Meta's eyewear partner), and that Counterpoint Research (an analyst firm) estimated Meta held about 82% of the global smart-glasses market in the second half of 2025 ([The Next Web, 14 May 2026](https://thenextweb.com/news/meta-smart-glasses-privacy-crisis-apple-google-snap), news). Both are reported figures, not ones we have checked. The same article reports Google plans Android XR glasses in 2026. This page uses Meta's glasses as the example because most published detail is about them.

| What | Where it goes, according to Meta (as of October 2026) |
|---|---|
| Photos and videos you take | "Stored on the device and are private to the user" until you move or share them |
| Questions to the assistant ("Hey Meta, what am I looking at?") | Sent to Meta AI, under that product's policies. Meta says it "sometimes use[s] contractors to review data" shared with Meta AI, with filtering meant to stop identifying details being reviewed |
| Live AI sessions (the assistant watches continuously) | Only when you start one. The capture light stays on, and you can review or delete the session history in the Meta AI app |
| Voice commands after "Hey Meta" | Stored by Meta. See the settings below |

Source for the table: Meta's privacy FAQ for its AI glasses, as distributed by the retailer Sunglass Hut ([Meta FAQ PDF, 2026](https://media.sunglasshut.com/2026/Meta%20/Privacy%20on%20Meta%20AI%20Glasses%20FAQ.pdf), vendor document). Meta's own privacy pages for the glasses would not load for us as text, so check the app for the current wording.

Two things have been reported that the FAQ does not settle:

- **Voice recordings.** In April 2025 Meta emailed owners that "AI features will now be enabled on the glasses by default". TechCrunch reported that voice recordings after the wake word are stored "without an option to opt out", that Meta's voice notice said they can be kept "up to one year", and that you delete them one by one in the app ([TechCrunch, 30 April 2025](https://techcrunch.com/2025/04/30/if-you-own-ray-ban-meta-glasses-you-should-double-check-your-privacy-settings/), news). That is 2025 reporting. Check the current [voice privacy notice](https://www.meta.com/legal/ai-glasses/voice-controls-privacy-notice/) (vendor policy) in the app.
- **Human review in Kenya.** According to The Next Web, a lawsuit filed on 4 March 2026 in the Northern District of California alleges Meta marketed the glasses as "designed for privacy, controlled by you" while footage went to human reviewers at Sama, a Nairobi contractor. The same article says Meta ended Sama's contract in April 2026, and that the UK Information Commissioner's Office and Kenya's data protection regulator have opened investigations. These are allegations and news reports. We found no statement on the ICO's own site.

## Owner's settings check

Our suggestion, as of October 2026. Menu names change, so search the Meta AI app's settings if one has moved.

1. **Test the capture light.** Take a photo in daylight and ask someone a few metres away whether they could see the light. Meta says the light is "bright, white" and that the camera will not record if the light is covered. A wearer quoted by The Next Web said it is hard to spot in daylight.
2. **Review your voice recordings.** In the Meta AI app, find the voice or privacy settings, look at what is stored, and delete what you do not want kept. Meta says deleted recordings "won't be used for future training" ([Meta, Responsible innovation](https://www.meta.com/actions/responsible-innovation/), vendor page).
3. **Decide on camera AI.** Every "look and tell me" question sends an image to Meta. If you mostly want a camera, use the plain capture button and skip the assistant for photos of people.
4. **Check cloud and sharing.** See whether your captures copy to a cloud service or upload to social apps automatically. Turn off anything you did not set up on purpose.
5. **Run the general privacy pass** on the Meta AI app itself, the same way you would any assistant ([Privacy settings pass](https://hayzlabs.com/setup/privacy-settings-pass/)).

> [!OUR RULE]
> Ask before you film anyone, and take the glasses off in changing rooms, bathrooms, clinics, schools and anywhere people expect privacy. Meta's own FAQ says "users are responsible for getting consent from people before taking a photo or video". Some workplaces, gyms, hospitals and venues ban camera glasses, so check before you go in.

If you use the glasses to record a meeting or a conversation for notes, the consent step on [Transcribe, then check](https://hayzlabs.com/workflows/transcribe-then-check/) applies too.

## If you are filmed

What you can do, as our suggestion:

1. **Ask, calmly, there and then.** "Were you recording? Please delete that." Ask to see it deleted from the phone as well, because captures move from the glasses to the phone app.
2. **Write down the basics** if they refuse: time, place, what happened. Do not grab the glasses.
3. **Tell the venue.** Staff can enforce their own rules on cameras.
4. **If it is posted online,** report it to the platform. Instagram, for example, has a [form to report a privacy violation](https://help.instagram.com/contact/504521742987441) (platform help page).
5. **If a company holds it** (a business filmed you, or posted it), in the UK you can ask the organisation to delete your data. The ICO says the organisation has "one calendar month to respond" ([ICO, Your right to get your data deleted](https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/your-right-to-get-your-data-deleted/), regulator guidance). Other countries have their own rules.
6. **If it is sexual or intimate,** use [Someone made a fake nude or sexual image of me: the first 48 hours](https://hayzlabs.com/guides/fake-intimate-image-first-48-hours/), which covers real images as well as AI-made ones, and report it to the police.

## Before you buy: five questions

Look for the answers in the maker's privacy policy before you pay.

- Do photos and videos stay on the device unless I share them?
- What happens to what I ask the assistant, and can a person at the company or a contractor see it?
- Can I stop voice recordings being stored, or only delete them afterwards? How long are they kept?
- Is there a capture light, and does the camera stop if the light is covered?
- Can I delete everything in one go, and close the account?

If a maker's policy will not answer these in plain words, treat that as your answer.

> [!CHECK]
> It worked if you can name what is stored in your Meta AI app right now, someone nearby saw your capture light in daylight, and you could tell a friend the two steps for being filmed: ask for deletion, then report a post.

## Limits

> [!LIMIT]
> Product details are as of October 2026 and come from Meta's FAQ as hosted by a retailer, a Meta web page and news reports. We could not read Meta's own glasses privacy pages as text, and we have not used the glasses. The lawsuit, the Kenyan contract and the regulator investigations are reported by The Next Web, and the voice-recording rules by TechCrunch in 2025. We cannot tell you whether a recording was legal where you live, because recording laws differ by place. Other makers' glasses may work differently.

## Sources

1. The Next Web. Meta smart glasses privacy crisis, 14 May 2026. News. [Link](https://thenextweb.com/news/meta-smart-glasses-privacy-crisis-apple-google-snap)
2. Meta. Privacy on Meta AI Glasses FAQ, 2026, hosted by Sunglass Hut. Vendor document. [Link](https://media.sunglasshut.com/2026/Meta%20/Privacy%20on%20Meta%20AI%20Glasses%20FAQ.pdf)
3. Meta. Responsible innovation in AI glasses and Quest, accessed October 2026. Vendor page. [Link](https://www.meta.com/actions/responsible-innovation/)
4. Meta. AI glasses voice privacy notice, accessed October 2026. Vendor policy. [Link](https://www.meta.com/legal/ai-glasses/voice-controls-privacy-notice/)
5. TechCrunch. If you own Ray-Ban Meta glasses, you should double-check your privacy settings, 30 April 2025. News. [Link](https://techcrunch.com/2025/04/30/if-you-own-ray-ban-meta-glasses-you-should-double-check-your-privacy-settings/)
6. Information Commissioner's Office. Your right to get your data deleted, accessed October 2026. Regulator guidance. [Link](https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/your-right-to-get-your-data-deleted/)
7. Instagram. Report a violation of your privacy, accessed October 2026. Platform help page. [Link](https://help.instagram.com/contact/504521742987441)