Meta Closes Third Smart Glasses Recording Loophole in Two Months as US Venues Start Banning the Devices

Meta's smart glasses have a recording light problem it can't seem to patch away for good. On August 27, the company rolled out its third software fix in roughly two months to stop people from secretly filming others.

The update closes what's been called the "start-then-cover" trick: wearers would begin recording while the LED was visible, satisfying the pre-recording check, then cover the light once capture was already underway. Meta VP of wearables Alex Himel announced the fix in a Threads post, writing that "the camera will now stop working if the light is covered during a recording," according to The Verge, Engadget, TechRadar, and Ars Technica, all of which carried the same statement.

This is not Meta's first swing at the problem. Engadget reported that Meta issued an earlier update last month that permanently disabled the camera if a user physically damaged or drilled out the LED hardware. An approach Tech Times said Meta referred to internally as "v26." Neither that fix nor the original design, which blocked recording only if the light was already covered before a video started, addressed the simpler bypass Meta closed this week.

Himel framed the abuse as marginal. "Only a tiny minority of people try to get around these protections, and the fact they have to go to these lengths shows our efforts are working," he wrote, per Ars Technica. Meta has not published data on how many accounts or users have been caught circumventing the light, so that claim is Meta's own characterization, not an independently verified figure.

Meta paired the software fix with a marketing push. A billboard went up in Los Angeles the same day reading "The camera lets you capture the moment. The light lets everyone around you know when you do." The Verge reported the message, with Meta spokesperson Albert Aydin saying similar ads will roll out in other cities where glasses sales are strong. Tech Times argued the billboard is itself an admission that firmware alone can't fix the real problem: most bystanders don't know what the LED means in the first place, and no software patch teaches them that.

Separately, Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth posted an Instagram video explaining that the camera has no off switch and stops working if someone tries to disable the light, according to Business Insider. Bosworth said Meta has been "taking down content and even whole accounts connected to people misusing the glasses." Business Insider also reported that some accessory sellers still offer stickers and hacks designed to dodge the light without triggering the new detection, and that Meta hasn't caught all of the harassment accounts, citing prior reporting by BI's Katie Notopoulos.

Venues Are Making Their Own Rules

While Meta tinkers with software, businesses are simply banning the glasses. Basement, a New York City nightclub, announced anyone wearing or even carrying the glasses will be asked to leave and could be permanently banned, Digital Trends reported. That mirrors restrictions already in place across the UK, where Jeremy King's restaurants, Soho House, and Wetherspoons bar recording with the glasses, and courts in England and Wales confiscate them at the door.

Burning Man, scheduled to run from Sunday, August 30 through Monday, September 7, 2026, told attendees they can bring the glasses but must get consent before filming anyone, Business Insider reported.

Private venues setting their own filming rules, and consumers voting with their feet by downloading an app like AntiZuck Smart Glasses Scanner, which Digital Trends says climbed to No. 3 on the paid App Store chart at $2.99, is the market sorting out a problem Meta created. Nobody needs a federal law to tell a nightclub it can ban cameras.

The Regulatory Pressure Is a Different Story

Germany is a different matter. Ars Technica reported that a German nonprofit filed a criminal complaint alleging the glasses breach the country's privacy laws, and that Germany is considering an outright ban. EU data regulators are also probing whether Meta properly field-tested the LED to confirm ordinary people would even recognize it, with the European Data Protection Board reportedly compiling a report to guide EU-wide action.

A government banning a product outright, rather than letting liability, market pressure, and venue policies do the work, is a heavier hand than the problem calls for. Covert recording that harasses people is already illegal or actionable in most places without a glasses-specific ban. The stronger case is holding individual harassers accountable, not outlawing the hardware for everyone who uses it responsibly.

In the US, Ars Technica reported a proposed nationwide class action accuses Meta of misrepresenting the privacy risks in its marketing. Meta has not yet filed a response in that litigation. Whether Meta's third fix in two months finally closes the gap, or just teaches the next generation of bypass tutorials how to route around it, remains the open question no billboard campaign has answered.