With the increase in sales of connected glasses from Ray-Ban and Meta (parent of Facebook and Instagram), the French can sometimes feel spied on when passing one of their users on the street. This device allows you to film everything that happens before your eyes and broadcast the video live on social networks. With Tech&Co, the CNIL announced that it was investigating a first complaint on this thorny issue.
But, specifically, what can users of Meta Ray-Ban glasses, sold for 360 euros, really do? On its site, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram highlights in particular a live broadcast function of everything filmed with glasses on the two social networks.
A Meta Ray-Ban user who walks down a French street and wishes to share this moment would risk, in the process, filming dozens of passers-by who have not yet given the slightest consent for their private life to be shared with thousands of Internet users. . users. And therefore it could turn against him.
Consent is essential (and difficult)
These new practices are not openly regulated by law, neither at the French nor European level. And at the moment, in the absence of clear jurisprudence, it is difficult to know how the texts surrounding the protection of privacy, but also personal data, could be applied.
For Éric Barbry, a lawyer specialized in new technology law, there is, however, one thing obvious: the question of consent. Especially when a user broadcasts a live video captured by the glasses on the street.
Before mentioning another even more thorny case: the live transmission of images in a private environment, for example in the waiting room of a doctor’s office, which, without the consent of all the people filmed, falls within the criminal sphere.
“In the absence of an explicit legal provision, the function of Meta glasses is not prohibited in principle. But this does not mean that distribution is not subject to conditions, there may be restrictions,” analyzes Alexandre Archambault, lawyer, for his part. specialized in digital law, with Tech&Co.
domestic use
If the Meta Ray-Ban’s live streaming function proves problematic, the connected glasses also allow you to record simple videos, just like a smartphone could. A more classic use, which could be similar to that of a simple smartphone.
In a document summarizing the “guidelines on the processing of personal data using video devices”, published in 2020, the European Data Protection Committee (EDPS, equivalent to the CNIL at the European level), recalls that the GDPR, regulation on personal data, does not apply to domestic uses.
For example, a tourist who records “videos both on his mobile phone and on a camcorder to document his vacation” and who shows “the images to his friends and family” but without making them “accessible to an undetermined number of people”, explains the EDPS. .
With such an interpretation, the use of Meta Ray-Ban to film third parties, without the videos being subsequently disseminated, could be legal. As long as this recording is not followed by wide dissemination, live or recorded, for example on an Instagram account open to everyone.
What responsibility does Meta have?
In the absence of a legal framework, jurisprudence or even recommendations from the CNIL, Meta plays it safe, logically attributing responsibility for its product to its customers. Sure your websiteThe company has published “some tips so that you and your loved ones can use your glasses with complete peace of mind.”
A wording that actually implies that your glasses will be very difficult to use to live film a visit to a city.
Aware of the criminal risks related to filming a private place without consent, Meta also recommends avoiding using the camera on the glasses “in sensitive places, for example in a doctor’s office, locker rooms, public toilets, a school or a place of worship “. “.
Meta also returns to the LED light, which turns on when the glasses’ camera is operating. The company specifies that it is the user’s responsibility to explain to the people filmed the meaning of this LED light. Which would mean, for example, specifying how this works for each person we meet on the street.
“The indicator light is a joke, as long as it is not known to everyone,” judges Eric Barbry, wondering if Meta’s responsibility cannot be questioned.
If this issue had also arisen a decade ago with Google Glass, finally abandoned, the regulator and public authorities risk having to address it more head-on: in September 2024, the Essilorluxottica group (owner of Ray-Ban) announced a new “Long-term” agreement with Meta “to develop several generations of smart glasses.”
Source: BFM TV
