A 38-year-old graphic designer and educator in Delhi named Shubnam was recorded on Meta smart glasses during a protest against a bill that would narrow legal recognition for transgender people in India. The footage was edited into a mocking reel that drew millions of views, transphobic abuse, reaction videos, and AI-generated memes, spreading from Instagram to X and YouTube.
Shubnam said the video rewound two decades of personal progress: “For a moment, it felt like this entire adult life I had lived was just a long lucid dream, and I was going to wake up as that clueless queer child again.” They haven’t worn a sari outside their neighborhood since.
Shubnam’s Recording
Shubnam, who identifies as transfeminine, was at a protest against a bill that would tighten legal recognition for transgender people in India. A content creator wearing Meta smart glasses recorded her, and in the footage, the creator asked Shubnam why she was wearing “female clothing.”
Shubnam told him to back off. The footage was edited into a mocking reel that drew millions of views, transphobic abuse, reaction videos, and AI-generated memes, spreading from Instagram to X and YouTube.
The Spread of Harm
Experts warn that many others will suffer similar ordeals as smart glasses go mainstream, and that privacy problems are becoming especially acute in India, where covert recording and image circulation without consent are already pervasive. Cases of cyberstalking, sextortion, deepfakes, and other online abuse are growing in India.
Indian law enforcement authorities are themselves adopting AI-powered surveillance tools, including facial recognition systems and AI-enabled smart glasses, which reduces chances of a crackdown on technologies like smart glasses.
Smart Glasses in India
Smart glasses are among the fastest-growing devices in India’s wearables market, per the International Data Corporation. Reliance Jio, one of India’s largest telecommunications companies, plans to launch a sub-$105 rival to Meta’s glasses later this year, while the latest Meta model costs $420 in India.
Meta rejects responsibility for protecting people from intrusions, per Janusz Świerczyński, an Oxford Saïd Business School researcher studying privacy and emerging technology. Meta relies on wearers to behave responsibly, says Świerczyński, and it tells users to spot a small LED in the glasses frames that activates when recording is in progress.
The LED Problem
Creators have demonstrated ways to circumvent the recording light on Meta’s glasses, including covering or disabling the LED. That means the light Meta relies on to signal recording isn’t always reliable.
Some protesters told MIT Technology Review they never saw the LED on the Meta AI glasses police wore.
Police Surveillance
A petition filed by former Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union president Aishe Ghosh alleged that Delhi police filmed protesters continuously for weeks, including while they ate and rested, and threatened to send footage to students’ parents and colleges. India’s solicitor general dismissed the case in July as “luxury litigation.”
Police opened 10 criminal investigations against students for offenses including rioting, assault on public servants, and damage to public property.
Consent in India
Sameer Parmar, a counselor at Meri Trustline, says India’s weak understanding of consent gives an invisible camera far more room to cause harm. Parmar notes simply being in a public place is often treated as implicit consent to be photographed or filmed.
That means a protester who doesn’t see the LED on a police officer’s glasses may assume no recording is happening, even though it is.
What Meta Says
Meta says its capture LED blinks when taking a photo or video, can’t be turned off, and if covered or damaged, the camera is disabled. Meta also says users must comply with the law and respect privacy.
The company’s position is that the wearer is responsible for how the device is used. The user, not the manufacturer, is supposed to watch for the light and decide what is acceptable.
The Cost of Covert Recording
Shubnam’s experience shows how quickly a private moment can become a public nightmare. A single recording turned into a mockery that followed her online, and the harm didn’t stop at the screen. It changed how she dresses and moves through her city.
India’s smart glasses market is growing fast, and so is the abuse that follows them. The technology is moving faster than the laws and norms that should govern it.
The question now is whether anyone will step in to stop it.
- Cyberstalking
- Sextortion
- Deepfakes
- Other online abuse
These cases are growing in India, and smart glasses are making them easier to commit. The camera is small enough to miss, the light can be covered, and the footage can spread across the internet within hours.
Shubnam’s story is one example, but it is not an isolated one. As the technology becomes cheaper and more common, the risks multiply.
Where the paper stands
The paper backs Shubnam and is against Meta’s smart glasses recording protesters, the editing of the footage into a mocking reel, and the spread of transphobic abuse and AI-generated memes across social media platforms. The recording of Shubnam, the editing into a mocking reel, and the spread of abusive content show exactly what happens when surveillance goes unchallenged.
The paper opposes the surveillance state, whether built by governments or by the companies that sell to them, and backs the citizens and local groups pushing back. Meta’s reliance on a small LED light that can be covered or disabled, and its refusal to take responsibility for protecting people from intrusions, fits squarely into that opposition. The paper supports Shubnam’s right to dress freely and move through her city without fear of being recorded and mocked.
The paper wants the technology slowed until the laws and norms catch up. It wants manufacturers to stop claiming that the wearer alone is responsible for every consequence of a camera that can be hidden, covered, or disabled.
Source material: “Smart glasses are already causing havoc in India,” MIT Technology Review.
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