The Meta glasses revolution - is it okay to film people in public?

It's the latest wearable tech boom that is likely coming to a street, park or town square near you. But not everyone sees the future of smart glasses as rose-tinted.

The technology allows users to make calls, interact with AI hands-free and also take photos and videos simply by touching the frames, provoking concerns about privacy.

Wetherspoons, which runs almost 800 pubs across the UK, has banned using the glasses to film inside its premises and women's rights campaigners have raised issues about their potential use for harassment.

But, with videos from content creators continuing to thrive on social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram, the debate of how to best use the glasses in public places will continue to go back and forth.

Pearse Vallely is one of those content creators – the 31-year-old from Ballymurphy, in west Belfast, makes a living from his work on social media.

He uses a pair of Meta Ray-Ban glasses, with most of his videos showing his glasses-eye view of walking down the street as he greets passers-by with rhyming phrases.

One of his most popular videos, filmed in Belfast city centre, hit 600,000 views on TikTok.

The success of the videos rely on their good-natured vibe. He said he had never posted a video after being asked not to, and no one had ever got in touch to ask him to take down a video.

"I think it's because of the nature of my conversation with them. They know I'm not making an eejit out of them, I'm doing it in a positive way."

Meta glasses, the brand used by Vallely, are the market leader in the smart glasses boom, with the company saying more than seven million pairs have been sold to date.

Available for a few hundred pounds, and made in partnership with the firm behind famed sunglasses brand Ray-Bans, the frames feature an unobtrusive camera that users can activate via touch.

This turns on a pulsing white light, which aims to let people know when a video is being taken, and a flash for photos – a feature a Meta spokesperson said "smartphones and other cameras don't have".

Meta said it recently updated the glasses to disable the camera if the light was tampered with.

Should AI or smart glasses products from more companies end up selling as well as Meta's version, researchers expect as many as 100 million people will buy a pair in the next few years.

Valelly, whose videos rely on the interactions being spontaneous and natural, said people are often aware he is recording due to the light on his glasses.

He also said he tries to let people know he has recorded them after filming if he can catch them in time.

In Northern Ireland, it is generally legal to film someone even discreetly in a public place, as people in public do not usually have a reasonable expectation of privacy.

The filming would only be unlawful if it could be seen as harassment, stalking, if the footage is voyeuristic, or in circumstances where there would be a reasonable expectation of privacy.

"It's okay to have a 30-second conversation with someone," Vallely said.

"I think that's something we're losing due to technology, and I'm trying to use technology to spin it around."

Vallely said he could understand the reasoning behind banning wearing Meta glasses "if people are being crude and rude", but he said the intention behind filming was key.

"People know it's me doing it, while other people do it on troll accounts. No matter what is invented, people are going to use things for the wrong reasons."

Still, while Vallely said he hasn't run into any opposition, there are reports suggesting an increased friction between people using the glasses to film and the general public.

Last December, people hailed a woman as "a hero" after she snapped a man's Meta glasses in two on the New York subway.

In July, police in Scotland began an investigation after complaints over a TikToker who used the glasses to secret film members of the public.

Referring to the company's ban on filming, a Wetherspoons spokesperson said smart glasses breached "common sense by enabling surreptitious surveillance" while Monopoly Events, which runs Comic Con Northern Ireland, also banned wearing the glasses at its events over concerns about secret recording.

Meanwhile, TikTok videos of users approaching women, asking for their number and filming their reaction to pick-up lines, are often posted with the hashtag #howtogetagirlfriend and can garner thousands of views.

Elaine Crory, a women's sector lobbyist at the Women's Resource and Development Agency, said there's a lack of awareness about when and how the glasses are being used, leading to issues around consent.

"Right now, if you're filming with a camera or with your phone, I usually can see that and then avoid that. But you may not be aware you're being filmed with an AI camera."

She added there were also concerns the glasses were being used for things that are currently illegal, like upskirting.

Crory said people can appeal to social media sites to take videos down and some venues have put up signs "on a case by case basis", but she feels legislation has not caught up with the technology.

"A person has no legal redress if they are filmed in the street, on a bus, in a classroom," she said.

The Department of Justice (DoJ) said that while the regulation of Meta glasses was not a DoJ specific matter, if the use of the glasses involved "behaviour that crosses the criminal threshold, then existing offences such as 'up-skirting' as a form of voyeurism" were available.

For optometrist Geoff McConville, who stocks Meta glasses in his Belfast shop, there are concerns about their "inappropriate use", but there are also beneficial aspects to the technology.

He cites how his patients use text-to-speech features, allowing them to read newspapers and signs with AI.

"For my elderly, visually impaired patients, they are ground-breaking. They are amazing."

In a statement, Meta said the glasses provided "critical new technology for people who are low-sighted or hard of hearing and limiting how people can use this technology would be a major step backwards".

"Naturally some places shouldn't be filmed at all and that's reasonable but rules should be applied consistently."

In a recent Q&A session, the head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, said if people posted content "taking advantage of people and harassing them... then we're going to take the content down".