Thousands of Meta AI glasses no longer have functioning cameras after the company discovered people were tampering with the recording indicator lights.
Meta announced new efforts in recent weeks has been cracking down on people who drill out or cover the tiny lights on their Meta glasses, which can make it easier to surreptitiously record people.
On Tuesday, Meta confirmed that it has already disabled the cameras on thousands of devices following a software update intended to combat bad actors. The company said the enforcement action affected the latest update, which affected less than one-tenth of a percent of all Meta AI glasses sold. Semafor first reported the news.
Meta hasn’t released any information on how many total devices have been sold since its 2021 launch, but 7 million were sold in 2025 alone (at a 0.1% figure, that would equate to 7,000 pairs of glasses that were physically tampered with).
Meta glasses have gotten a somewhat fraught reputation among some people lately referring to them as “perverted glasses.” Business Insider has previously reported on Instagram’s bumpy takedown efforts intimidating content filmed on Meta glasses in public areas. The glasses have always had an indicator light to show when they were recording, but people have found ways to hide or turn off the light.
The company is responding to that criticism with several new lines of defense, including a new PR blitz.
On Monday, Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth said in an ask-me-anything story post on Instagram that the glasses are “the most privacy-friendly camera” for consumers.
“You haven’t had a camera that turned on a light when it took a photo or video of someone since you had a VHS tape recorder in the 1990s,” he said, referring to the light that flashes when the glasses are recording. “Your phone doesn’t have that, and it’s the most used camera in the world.”
The company also posted billboards in Los Angeles, proclaiming that the glasses are “designed for everyone” and “not just the people who wear them.”
A recent update would prevent the device from recording if the light is tampered with, but people have found a way around this: it only detected a blockage at the start of filming, so they started recording, waited a few seconds and then covered it up.
The latest update closes that loophole. But not all people who tried to sneak around without lights will have their cameras permanently disabled.
If you drilled out your LED light, your camera function will never work again. However, if you had used the popular method of just covering it with a sticker; the camera will work again as soon as you remove the sticker.
On a Thursday post on TopicsMeta’s vice president of wearables, Alex Himel, wrote that only a “small minority of people” tampered with the hardware, and said Meta “will continue to roll out updates like this to ensure the capture LED can reliably alert bystanders when photos or videos are being taken.”
