META recently launched its latest pair of smart glasses, and word on the street is that Apple is not that far behind. META recently launched its latest pair of smart glasses Apple Both companies appear to be betting big on face mounted technology, and, I can only assume, hoping that the public erased the term 'glasshole' from our collective memory banks. You may remember the term from the brief, awkward Google Glass Era, when the idea of strapping a camera to your face and talking to it in public made you look like a walking privacy violation. Yet here we are again, ten years later, being sold a vision of the future where wearing a computer on your face is cool, not creepy. The tech has no doubt come a long way in this time. Today's smart glasses can take high res photos, steam audio, even run AI powered assistants. But the public is still not entirely sold. According to YouGov nearly half of all britons have concerns about privacy of wearable tech, and scepticism around cost and necessity remains high. YouGov However, let us not pretend the potential for misuse is anything but enormous. Imagine, for example, a pair of smart glasses streams live visual data to a large language model (LLM), which then returns, just hypothetically; a pornographic reinterpretation of whatever the user is looking at. Its unsettling, technically feasible and becoming easier by the day. 'Ah but there will be protections in place to prevent this kind of thing' I hear you cry. But the uncomfortable truth is that big tech has a poor track record of preventing the unethical use of their products. Facebook's role in the Rohingya genocide being one example. Or perhaps the Telegram Messaging App and the AI bots on it that generate child pornography. Facebook's role in the Rohingya genocide being one example Telegram Messaging App and the AI bots on it that generate child pornography And governments? Too busy being courted, lobbied, and outpaced to legislate meaningfully. Too busy being courted, lobbied, and outpaced to legislate meaningfully It feels like the asks from Silicon Valley are getting bolder not just in terms of data access, but in what risks we're expected to absorb as consumers. Trust us, they say, while quietly rewriting the boundaries of public space, personal privacy, and digital ethics. There are real use cases for this tech; accessibility tools, training, seamless navigation, and hands-free communication all stand to benefit. But some of us notice what happens when innovation moves faster than accountability. Maybe they’re banking on our short memory. Maybe they think we’ve all just moved on. Maybe it's time they stop recycling old ideas, and start designing for trust, not just attention.
