Ray-Ban Meta glasses recorded conversations without wake phrase in bug Meta says is fixed

Some Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses were recording and saving people's conversations without the wearer's knowledge or consent — no wake phrase required — in a bug that Meta says it has now fixed, but has declined to fully explain.

The issue surfaced this week when a Reddit user going by Kindly-Audience-137 reported that their glasses were capturing audio and storing transcripts in the Meta AI app, despite the 'Respond without Hey Meta' setting being turned off. The user said the problem appeared across three separate pairs of glasses — spanning second- and third-generation Ray-Ban Meta models — and that they first noticed it after a recent firmware update. Several other users said they experienced the same thing. The white capture LED, Meta's own safeguard meant to signal when recording is active, was reportedly blinking during ordinary conversations.

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.— Kindly-Audience-137, Reddit user

Android Authority reported the discussions and then obtained a statement from Meta. The company's response was brief.

This issue has been resolved. People can manage, review and delete voice logs of their interactions with Meta AI via settings at any time.— Meta spokesperson

Meta has not said what caused the bug, how many devices were affected, or what it is doing to prevent similar issues in the future. Android Authority said it was unable to replicate the problem before Meta announced the fix. Ars Technica said it reached out to Meta with those questions and had not received a response.

The bug lands in the middle of an already fraught privacy debate around the glasses. Meta has previously pointed to the indicator light as evidence that users can tell when recording is happening — but this incident shows the light can activate without any intentional trigger, and that recordings can be made and stored regardless. In August, Meta updated the glasses so they won't record if the indicator light is physically covered, a response to concerns about deliberate misuse. But this bug involves no bad actor: it is the device itself recording without the wearer meaning to.

The glasses have faced scrutiny beyond software bugs. A report by Swedish journalists, based on interviews with more than 30 contractors at Sama, a data annotation company headquartered in Kenya, described workers reviewing footage captured by Ray-Ban Metas — including private moments the wearers appeared unaware they had recorded. One anonymous Sama employee was quoted saying workers had viewed a glasses owner's partner coming out of a bathroom naked. That report led to a lawsuit seeking class action certification and an investigation by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, according to Ars Technica.

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.— Anonymous Sama employee

The privacy concerns around Ray-Ban Metas and similar smart glasses have already prompted proposed legislation. Norway is considering a temporary ban, according to Ars Technica. The glasses' relatively inconspicuous design — compared to earlier, more visually distinct wearables — has been a particular focus of concern, given how easily a wearer could record others in public without those people realizing it.

When the Reddit user contacted Meta's support team directly, a staff member reportedly recommended disabling microphone and camera permissions as a workaround — a response that does little to address why the bug occurred in the first place. Meta's public statement, similarly, offers no technical explanation and no commitment to transparency about the scope of the problem.

Why it matters — The bug turned a theoretical privacy fear into a documented reality: smart glasses worn by real people recorded private conversations without consent, and the company that makes them has offered no explanation of how it happened or how to ensure it won't happen again.

Reported by arstechnica.com, androidauthority.com, pcmag.com