Bug turns one of the biggest fears about Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses into reality

Some Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses were recording people’s conversations without the wearer knowing. The recordings occurred without users saying the prompt phrase (“Hey, Meta”), in a bug that Meta says has been fixed.

部分 Ray-Ban Meta 智能眼镜在佩戴者不知情的情况下录制了人们的对话。这些录音是在用户没有说出提示词（“Hey, Meta”）的情况下发生的，Meta 表示该漏洞现已修复。

This week, some users reported online that their Ray-Ban Metas were recording without their consent. A person going by Kindly-Audience-137 on Reddit, for example, said this happened to them across three Meta Ray-Bans and that they had the “Respond without Hey Meta” setting turned off.

本周，一些用户在网上报告称，他们的 Ray-Ban Meta 眼镜在未经同意的情况下进行了录音。例如，Reddit 上一位名为 Kindly-Audience-137 的用户表示，这种情况发生在他的三副 Meta Ray-Ban 眼镜上，而且他当时关闭了“无需 Hey Meta 即可响应”的设置。

The person said the Meta AI app “saves audio recordings and text transcripts of these conversations in my conversation history.” “I believe this deserves a serious technical investigation. Customers should not have to wonder whether their private conversations are being captured when they have not intentionally activated their glasses’ AI assistant,” the Reddit user said.

该用户称，Meta AI 应用程序“将这些对话的录音和文字记录保存在了我的对话历史记录中”。这位 Reddit 用户表示：“我认为这值得进行严肃的技术调查。当客户没有主动激活眼镜的 AI 助手时，他们不应该担心自己的私人谈话是否正在被录制。”

Android Authority reported the discussions on Tuesday. Later that day it published a response from Meta that read: “This issue has been resolved. People can manage, review, and delete voice logs of their interactions with Meta AI via settings at any time.”

Android Authority 于周二报道了这些讨论。当天晚些时候，它发布了 Meta 的回应，内容如下：“此问题已得到解决。用户可以随时通过设置管理、查看和删除与 Meta AI 交互的语音日志。”

Although Meta’s brief message suggests that the bug is fixed, the broader privacy problem remains. Unanswered questions Meta hasn’t said what caused the Ray-Ban Metas to record people without user consent.

尽管 Meta 的简短声明表明该漏洞已修复，但更广泛的隐私问题依然存在。未解的问题是，Meta 尚未说明是什么原因导致 Ray-Ban Meta 在未经用户同意的情况下录制了人们的谈话。

Reddit user Kindly-Audience-137 said they “first noticed this behavior after a recent firmware update,” but Meta hasn’t confirmed if a faulty update caused the bug. We also don’t know how many Meta smart glasses were affected.

Reddit 用户 Kindly-Audience-137 表示，他们“在最近一次固件更新后首次注意到这种行为”，但 Meta 尚未确认是否是错误的更新导致了该漏洞。我们也不知道有多少 Meta 智能眼镜受到了影响。

There are a few reports online, but Android Authority said it was unable to replicate the problem before Meta said it fixed it. Ars Technica sent Meta a message asking what it’s doing to prevent future bugs like this from happening again and how many devices were affected. We’ll update this article if we hear back.

网上有一些相关报道，但 Android Authority 表示在 Meta 宣布修复之前，他们无法复现该问题。Ars Technica 已向 Meta 发送消息，询问其正在采取什么措施来防止此类漏洞再次发生，以及有多少设备受到影响。如果我们收到回复，我们将更新本文。

Even a handful of affected devices is cause for concern, though. Before reports of this bug, privacy advocates had already expressed widespread concerns about Meta’s smart glasses, as well as those from other vendors.

不过，即使只有少数设备受到影响也足以引起担忧。在此漏洞报告出现之前，隐私倡导者就已经对 Meta 的智能眼镜以及其他供应商的同类产品表达了广泛的担忧。

Beyond the fear that naturally accompanies the release of new technology that features a microphone and camera, Meta’s glasses pushed the boundaries of privacy further with their more inconspicuous look, prompting concern about how easy it could be for someone to secretly record another person.

除了伴随配备麦克风和摄像头的新技术发布而产生的自然恐惧外，Meta 的眼镜因其更隐蔽的外观进一步挑战了隐私底线，引发了人们对他人可能轻易进行秘密录制的担忧。

Meta has previously tried to assuage concerns by pointing to the fact that its glasses light up when recording audio or video. But the bug this week shows that even with this light activated, it’s possible for the smart glasses to record inadvertently.

Meta 此前曾试图通过指出其眼镜在录制音频或视频时会亮灯来缓解人们的担忧。但本周的漏洞表明，即使开启了指示灯，智能眼镜仍有可能在无意中进行录制。

Meta’s brief statement does little to alleviate those worries. Meanwhile, the bug lends some credence to reports and trepidation that Ray-Ban Metas are creating recordings without subjects’ knowledge.

Meta 的简短声明几乎无法消除这些担忧。与此同时，该漏洞也让有关 Ray-Ban Meta 在当事人不知情的情况下进行录制的报道和不安情绪变得更加可信。

Fears brought to life Meta has been steadfast in its push for gadgets that put microphones and cameras in people’s homes and on their faces, while battling fears that the devices could be used for nonconsensual recordings.

恐惧成为现实：Meta 一直坚定地推动将麦克风和摄像头置于人们家中和脸上的设备，同时也在努力应对人们对这些设备可能被用于未经同意的录制的担忧。

Contractors for Sama, a data annotation company headquartered in Kenya, say they have viewed footage that was shot by Ray-Ban Metas, seemingly without the wearer or other people in the video knowing.

总部位于肯尼亚的数据标注公司 Sama 的承包商表示，他们曾查看过由 Ray-Ban Meta 拍摄的视频片段，这些片段似乎是在佩戴者或视频中的其他人不知情的情况下拍摄的。

A report by Swedish journalists earlier this year interviewed over 30 Sama workers and pointed to a “stream of privacy-sensitive data that is fed straight into the tech giant’s systems,” per a machine translation, resulting in workers viewing private activities, like a glasses owner’s partner coming out of a bathroom naked.

瑞典记者今年早些时候的一篇报道采访了 30 多名 Sama 员工，并指出“一股涉及隐私的敏感数据流直接进入了这家科技巨头的系统”（根据机器翻译），导致员工看到了私人活动，例如眼镜所有者的伴侣赤身裸体走出浴室。

“Meta has that type of content in its databases. People can record themselves in the wrong way and not even know what they are recording,” the report quoted an anonymous Sama employee as saying.

该报道援引一名匿名 Sama 员工的话说：“Meta 的数据库中确实有这类内容。人们可能会以错误的方式录制自己，甚至不知道自己正在录制什么。”

In the US, the report led to a lawsuit seeking class action certification [PDF] and an investigation from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. In August, Meta updated its smart glasses so that they won’t record if the glasses’ indicator light is covered up.

在美国，该报道引发了一起寻求集体诉讼认证的诉讼 [PDF]，以及德克萨斯州总检察长肯·帕克斯顿（Ken Paxton）的调查。今年 8 月，Meta 更新了其智能眼镜，使其在指示灯被遮挡时无法进行录制。

Some potential privacy violations using Ray-Ban Metas, however, hinge on a bad human actor. But this most recent glitch, as well as the reports from the Sama workers, highlights the possibility for well-meaning users to inadvertently record stuff, too.

然而，使用 Ray-Ban Meta 造成的一些潜在隐私侵犯取决于恶意的使用者。但最近的这次故障，以及 Sama 员工的报告，凸显了善意的用户也可能在无意中录制内容的可能性。

The privacy shortcomings of Ray-Ban Meta and other smart glasses have raised concerns about being clandestinely recorded in public and about the creation of apps for detecting the smart glasses. The privacy concerns have also led to proposed legislation, including in Norway, which is considering a temporary ban.

Ray-Ban Meta 和其他智能眼镜的隐私缺陷引发了人们对在公共场合被秘密录制的担忧，以及对开发用于检测此类智能眼镜的应用程序的关注。这些隐私担忧也促使了一些立法提案，包括挪威正在考虑实施临时禁令。

Glasses like Ray-Ban Metas have the potential to intentionally or unintentionally violate people’s privacy, whether through technical problems, sharing data without user consent, or poor design. Without further constraints, one of the biggest drawbacks to devices like Ray-Ban Metas will continue to be the fear of nonconsensual recording, a fear that this week’s bug turned into a reality.

像 Ray-Ban Meta 这样的眼镜，无论是通过技术问题、未经用户同意共享数据还是糟糕的设计，都有可能有意或无意地侵犯人们的隐私。如果没有进一步的限制，像 Ray-Ban Meta 这类设备最大的弊端之一将继续是对未经同意录制的恐惧，而本周的漏洞将这种恐惧变成了现实。