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. For Shubnam, the video has caused huge harm.
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. 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. That means it’s up to them to spot a small LED in the glasses frames that activates when recording is in progress.
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