Smart glasses are already causing havoc in India
Smart glasses are already causing havoc in India
智能眼镜已在印度引发混乱
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Shubnam was packing boxes for a move into a new home when their friend sent them an Instagram video. The footage had only been up for a few hours, but it was days old, recorded at a Delhi protest this spring against a bill that would have narrowed the legal recognition for transgender people in India. There, a content creator known for rage-bait videos had approached Shubnam, a 38-year-old transfeminine graphic designer and educator. Shubnam, who uses a single chosen name, was dressed in a green sari with a shaved head, and the creator asked why they were wearing “female clothing.” Shubnam told him to back off. Only when the video arrived did they realize he had recorded the exchange on Meta smart glasses, styled to look like ordinary Wayfarers. Edited into a mocking reel, the footage drew millions of views, along with transphobic abuse, reaction videos, and AI-generated memes. It spread from Instagram to X and YouTube. Copies remain online today.
执行摘要 Shubnam 正在打包搬家时，朋友发来一段 Instagram 视频。这段视频发布仅几个小时，但其实是几天前在德里的一场抗议活动中录制的。那场抗议旨在反对一项会削弱印度跨性别者法律认可度的法案。当时，一名以制作“愤怒诱饵”（rage-bait）视频而闻名的内容创作者接近了 38 岁的跨性别女性平面设计师兼教育工作者 Shubnam。Shubnam（仅使用单一名字）当时身穿绿色纱丽，剃着光头，该创作者质问他们为何穿着“女性服装”。Shubnam 要求他走开。直到收到视频，他们才意识到对方是用 Meta 智能眼镜录下了这段对话，这种眼镜外观看起来就像普通的 Wayfarer 眼镜。这段视频被剪辑成嘲讽短片，获得了数百万次观看，并引发了跨性别歧视辱骂、反应视频和 AI 生成的模因。视频从 Instagram 传播到 X 和 YouTube，至今仍有副本在线。
For Shubnam, the video has caused huge harm. “All it took was one unconsented video to rewind two decades of progress that I made all on my own,” they told MIT Technology Review. “For a moment, it felt like this entire adult life I had lived was just a long lucid dream, and I was going to wake up as that clueless queer child again.” They haven’t worn a sari outside their neighborhood since.
对 Shubnam 而言，这段视频造成了巨大的伤害。“仅仅因为一段未经同意的视频，我独自奋斗二十年取得的进步就倒退了，”他们告诉《麻省理工科技评论》。“那一刻，我觉得我度过的整个成年生活就像一场漫长的清醒梦，而我即将醒来，变回那个懵懂的酷儿孩子。”从那以后，他们再也没有在社区外穿过纱丽。
Experts warn that many others will experience similar ordeals as smart glasses go mainstream. And they say privacy problems are becoming especially acute in India, where covert recording and the circulation of images without consent are already pervasive. Cases of cyberstalking, sextortion, deepfakes, and other forms of online abuse are growing in the country. And the chances of a crackdown on technologies such as smart glasses are slim, given that Indian law enforcement authorities are themselves increasingly adopting AI-powered surveillance tools, including facial recognition systems and their own AI-enabled smart glasses.
专家警告称，随着智能眼镜走向主流，许多人将经历类似的磨难。他们表示，隐私问题在印度尤为严峻，因为在该国，秘密录制和未经同意传播图像的行为已经非常普遍。网络跟踪、性勒索、深度伪造及其他形式的网络滥用案件在该国呈上升趋势。鉴于印度执法部门自身也越来越多地采用人工智能监控工具（包括人脸识别系统和他们自己的 AI 智能眼镜），对智能眼镜等技术进行打击的可能性微乎其微。
An unequal burden Smart glasses are among the fastest-growing devices in India’s wearables market, according to the International Data Corporation, a research firm. And Reliance Jio, one of the country’s largest telecommunications companies, says that later this year it’s set to launch a sub-$105 rival to Meta’s glasses, the latest model of which have a $420 price tag in India. The core privacy issue is that these cameras don’t look like cameras, so targets may not notice they’re being recorded. Yet Meta rejects the idea that it’s responsible for protecting people from intrusions, says Janusz Świerczyński, an Oxford Saïd Business School researcher who studies privacy and emerging technology. “More and more, the expectation is being placed on bystanders to look out for themselves,” he says. That means it’s up to them to spot a small LED in the glasses frames that activates when recording is in progress. Meta also relies on wearers to behave responsibly, says Świerczyński. Reliance Jio did not respond to our request for comment on privacy issues related to its upcoming glasses.
不平等的负担 根据研究公司国际数据公司（IDC）的数据，智能眼镜是印度可穿戴设备市场增长最快的设备之一。印度最大的电信公司之一 Reliance Jio 表示，今年晚些时候将推出一款售价低于 105 美元的竞品，以挑战 Meta 的眼镜（Meta 最新款在印度售价为 420 美元）。核心隐私问题在于，这些摄像头看起来不像摄像头，因此目标对象可能根本察觉不到自己正在被录制。牛津大学赛德商学院研究隐私和新兴技术的研究员 Janusz Świerczyński 表示，Meta 拒绝承担保护人们免受侵扰的责任。“人们越来越期望旁观者自己保护自己，”他说。这意味着旁观者必须自己去发现眼镜框架上那个在录制时会亮起的小型 LED 灯。Świerczyński 指出，Meta 还依赖于佩戴者的自觉行为。Reliance Jio 未回应我们关于其即将推出的眼镜所涉及隐私问题的置评请求。
Creators have already demonstrated ways to circumvent the recording light on Meta’s glasses. Tutorials show users how to cover or otherwise obscure the LED while continuing to record. Back in March, Wired documented a market for “stealth mode” modifications that physically disable the light or remove it entirely. All that makes covert recording easier, and the risks are not borne equally. Świerczyński says women and other marginalized groups face greater harm when inconspicuous devices capture and circulate footage without consent—as happened to Shubnam.
创作者们已经展示了绕过 Meta 眼镜录制指示灯的方法。教程演示了用户如何在继续录制的同时遮盖或以其他方式掩盖 LED 灯。早在三月份，《连线》杂志就记录了一个“隐身模式”改装市场，这些改装可以物理禁用或完全移除指示灯。所有这些都让秘密录制变得更容易，而且风险并非由所有人平等承担。Świerczyński 表示，当不显眼的设备在未经同意的情况下捕捉并传播影像时，女性和其他边缘群体面临的伤害更大——正如 Shubnam 所经历的那样。
The bigger problem, however, is that in India smart glasses aren’t just being used to turn ordinary people into targets of viral “pranks.” They’re also being adopted as a tool of police surveillance. In June, when thousands of young demonstrators gathered to protest problems with the country’s education system, Delhi police used Meta smart glasses to record them. In fact, a petition filed by former Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union president Aishe Ghosh before the Delhi High Court alleged that police had filmed protesters continuously for weeks, including while they were eating and resting. It also alleged that the police had threatened to send footage of student demonstrators to their parents and colleges. In July, India’s solicitor general dismissed the case in court as “luxury litigation.” Instead of investigating the students’ complaints, police turned on the students themselves, opening 10 criminal investigations for offenses including rioting, assault on public servants, and damage to public property. Some of the protesters, who spoke to MIT Technology Review on condition of anonymity, say they never saw the LED on the Meta AI glasses police wore during the demonstrations.
然而，更大的问题在于，在印度，智能眼镜不仅被用来将普通人变成病毒式“恶作剧”的目标，还被用作警察监控的工具。六月，当数千名年轻示威者聚集抗议该国教育系统的问题时，德里警方使用了 Meta 智能眼镜对他们进行录制。事实上，前贾瓦哈拉尔·尼赫鲁大学学生会主席 Aishe Ghosh 向德里高等法院提交的一份请愿书称，警方连续数周对示威者进行拍摄，包括他们在吃饭和休息时。请愿书还称，警方威胁要将学生示威者的录像发送给他们的父母和学校。七月，印度副总检察长在法庭上驳回了此案，称其为“奢侈诉讼”。警方不仅没有调查学生的投诉，反而针对学生本人，对包括暴乱、袭击公职人员和破坏公共财产在内的罪行展开了 10 项刑事调查。一些接受《麻省理工科技评论》采访的示威者（要求匿名）表示，他们从未看到警察在示威期间佩戴的 Meta AI 眼镜上的 LED 灯。
Filming without consent Meta maintains that its safeguard works. The company told MIT Technology Review, “Every pair has a capture LED that blinks when you take a photo or video that you can save or share; it can’t be turned off, and if someone covers or damages the LED, the camera is disabled.” The company also says users are responsible for complying with the law and respecting people’s privacy. That approach is risky, especially in India, where norms around filming and consent are still highly disputed and digital literacy is still uneven, says Sameer Parmar, a counselor at Meri Trustline, a safety partner working with Meta and YouTube to support people harmed by online content. “The hardware is improving, but the country’s weak understanding of consent gives an invisible camera far more room to cause harm,” he says. Simply being in a public place is often treated as implicit consent to be photographed or filmed. He says the help line has been seeing an uptick in cases involving covert recording and nonconsensual footage. “Violations of this access have increased significantly and are expected to rise further.”
未经同意的拍摄 Meta 坚称其保障措施有效。该公司告诉《麻省理工科技评论》：“每一副眼镜都有一个拍摄 LED 灯，当您拍摄照片或视频以供保存或分享时，它会闪烁；该灯无法关闭，如果有人遮盖或损坏 LED 灯，摄像头将被禁用。”该公司还表示，用户有责任遵守法律并尊重他人的隐私。Meri Trustline 的咨询师 Sameer Parmar 表示，这种做法风险很大，尤其是在印度，因为该国关于拍摄和同意的规范仍存在巨大争议，且数字素养水平参差不齐。Meri Trustline 是 Meta 和 YouTube 的安全合作伙伴，旨在支持受网络内容伤害的人。“硬件在进步，但该国对‘同意’的薄弱理解，使得隐形摄像头有更大的空间造成伤害，”他说。仅仅身处公共场所通常被视为默示同意被拍照或录像。他表示，该求助热线处理的涉及秘密录制和未经同意影像的案件数量正在上升。“对此类权利的侵犯已显著增加，预计未来还会进一步上升。”