They met at a bar in midtown Manhattan. He arrived wearing a baseball cap pulled low and sported a pair of black-framed glasses, she says. As conversation flowed, from discussions about navigating life in New York to past relationships, he mentioned that his glasses were Meta Ray-Bans.
“I wasn’t familiar with them,” McAnuff, a 28-year-old project manager who now lives in Toronto, tells WIRED. It was her first time seeing the smart glasses up close, which can record images and video from the wearer’s viewpoint. He let her try them on and even showed her a couple of videos that he’d taken previously, she says. “That was it. We stopped talking about it after that. I figured that was the end of the use.”
The next day, checking her Instagram, McAnuff noticed she’d been tagged in one of his story posts. To her surprise, it was footage of them at the bar and on the subway together, en route to a basketball game uptown. In the video, McAnuff is captured from an above angle, sitting across from her date who is holding a drinking glass; WIRED has seen screenshots of the footage. “I felt super violated,” McAnuff says. “Like, what if I don’t want everyone knowing what I’m up to? He felt so free to film me and post it. There was no conversation about it.”
Meta sold more than 7 million pairs of the Ray-Bans in 2025, as its smart glasses have infiltrated public spaces thanks to pranksters with dreams of viral fame, some of whom even film people while they’re at work. The phenomenon, which has also spread to pickup artists hitting on women, has earned the hardware the nickname “creep glasses.”
Among singles, and particularly women, Meta’s AI-powered eyewear has become a recurring nuisance, as people share a spreading unease about being covertly filmed on dates.
Anyone wearing these anywhere is a huge red flag.
Pervert glasses.
They’re called pervert glasses.
Get it right, Wired.
And let’s also lay it all out: the only people wearing them are sick enough in the head to need immediate institutionalization. Full stop, end of story.
I still like the original Glass Hole.
Oh, how fun. Now we’ll all be even more repressed because literally every interaction will be recorded and you better not do anything cringe.
My Meta Glasses memeable thought of the day:
If you feel violated when a private citizen follows you around with a camera, might want to also feel violated when the state follows you around with millions of cameras.
I thought the convention was to call them “perv glasses”?
I wonder what’s gonna happen when someone who has like a reactionary-style mental illness, yet is cognitively aware enough to know what the glasses are and keeps up with current events, sees someone with the glasses on and just punches the person in the face. 🤣.
I am just thinking that people will definitely make porns with those glasses
*people wearing creep glasses is a red flag
creep glasses
They’re called pervert glasses.
“Creep” isn’t inclusive enough, “pervert” is.
I haven’t seen a story yet about women wearing these glasses for nefarious purposes. Do you have any to share?
Given that you’re operating on anecdotal evidence, the onus would be on you to prove that the effect is exclusively gender linked.
I quite frankly wouldn’t be surprised if men are more of a problem with them than women or non binary folk, but as-is the headline is needlessly and intentionally divisive,and does not support that conclusion. Hell, I would argue that the majority of what most people post on social media is creepy, men and women included. It’s weird to share non consensual images of people publicly, regardless of how insta rotted your brain is.
We should all always be trying to use people first language unless there’s a really specific reason not to, and in this case the point is that people being creepy wear creep glasses, there’s no reason to bring gender into it, the reader can draw their own conclusions based on what they know about creepy people.
I linked an article that has a focus on men using these glasses on dates. I didn’t come up with the article title myself.
Do you have any stories of women abusing these glasses?
I can think of countless cases of women sharing stuff on social media that they shouldn’t.
The point is that creeps wear creep glasses.
Just because the author is being needlessly divisive for clicks doesn’t mean you need to continue that chain.
Do you have stories of women or non-binary people abusing these glasses?
I’m sincerely asking.
I have no stories of anyone abusing these glasses other than the small handful of anecdotes in the article that can fit on one hand.
And as the article points out, 7M of these glasses were sold, so 2-3 stories is not exactly statistically significant or relevant.
I can find you numerous stories of female stalkers and creeps using cellphones though, if that is would help.
This is far from the first article I’ve seen covering these glasses. Many of them are posted to this community.
I’d honestly be interested to see if women and non-binary people are similarly abusing privacy issues with these glasses and in what circumstances. I haven’t seen it reported.
I can find you numerous stories of female stalkers and creeps using cellphones though, if that is would help.
No, the topic is the smart glasses and their use to intrude on other’s privacy.
Where is the “hue hue people have cameras in their phone and you have no problem with that, checkmate” guy…I know you’re in here.
The Instagram part of the story perfectly highlights the difference. Busting out a camera to start filming the entire date so I can make a highlight reel later is way more conspicuous than simply wearing my glasses. One leads to a discussion while the other is inconspicuous and likely never had consent in the first place.
This is the only sane take on perv glasses.
If someone pulled out their phone to photograph me on our first date, I’d nip that in the bud, and maybe just walk away. I guess I might be okay if there was a scenic background and they said “want to get a selfie together?” but a photo just of me across the table? Creepy.
And with a conversation about it all that can be laid out and consented to.
Hey this view is really pretty can we take a selfie? Sure!
Later that evening: Hey that photo came out good, do you mind if I post it to my Instagram? I’d prefer if you didn’t.
Okay no problem.
It doesn’t need to be any more complicated than this.
What a world we live in. Just stick your phone in his face and video him too?
I wear these sunglasses every day, I’m not even logged into the app since they made it the ai app and haven’t backed up my photos on 2 years. I also didn’t purchase them, am I a creep?
You are literally a walking security cam. Yes, its creepy dude.
Ye bro ignore everything in my comment sweet, do you feel the same about dash cams? And like for real, I don’t have social media and the glasses aren’t linked to an app, how in the fucking world am I a security camera?
I 100% feel the same way about dashcams, doorbell cams, trail cams, literally anything that isn’t a locally hosted camera.
If you think you aren’t recording and submitting ANYWAYs without the link, think again. Look at the lastest investigations into smart TVs.
Are you recording people without their consent?
What do you want me to say here? Before the app update I would like, take photos or videos of traffic when driving? Sometimes when I’m on a bike there may be people in the background?
You asked if you were a creep for wearing the smart glasses, so I asked if you’re recording people without their consent. I think that’s the line. It is creepy to record people without them knowing.
Recording your drive or your bike route is akin to dash cam videos. Not quite the same as recording a person you’re sitting across from at a table.
Do you only use those glasses as dash cam replacements?
No, I use them as headphones and sunglasses lol. The camera part is functionally dead to me, I’m literally just trying to figure out where you draw the line at.
I guess just be aware how you come off to others while wearing those glasses. They’re getting a particular reputation and it really seems like you’re using them innocently enough. Good luck out there!
