Privacy Market: German Data Protection Commissioner Warns Meta's Smart Glasses Hard to Use Legally

The Hamburg Data Protection Commissioner, Thomas Fuchs, has released a report concluding that Meta's smart glasses are barely legally usable in Germany under GDPR. The report criticizes the difficulty of covert recording, weak LED indicators, and code fragments suggesting facial recognition. This follows earlier reports that video recordings, including sensitive data, were accessible to data workers in Kenya. Meta counters that it has tested LED brightness and automatically blurs faces and license plates in responses, and that images used for AI answers are not stored. The commissioner emphasizes that GDPR requires prior consent from individuals filmed in public spaces, which is nearly impossible with the current design. This could impact Meta's smart glasses sales in Germany, where it holds a 70% market share.