EFF: Smart Glasses and Always-On Recorders Are Reshaping Privacy
The digital rights group EFF criticizes tech companies for devices that record or transcribe conversations all day. It says bystanders have no way to opt out of being captured.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a US digital rights organization, argues in a new analysis that technology companies are trying to shift the concept of privacy. The cause is a growing range of devices that run in the background and record, transcribe or summarize what the user says and does throughout the day.
Devices mentioned
EFF cites Meta and Google smart glasses, which can record whatever the wearer is looking at or describe it using artificial intelligence. Apple Watch has an Audio Intelligence feature that records or summarizes the user's day, and Amazon's Bee devices can record and transcribe everything said. The organization adds that dozens of other companies are launching similar pendants, rings and other products.
Main objections
According to EFF, the technical privacy promises made by these companies cover only the device's user, not the bystanders who may be captured and cannot opt out. The companies expect owners to use the devices responsibly and to tell others around them, which EFF considers unreasonable and incompatible with how consent works.
The group also says law enforcement will eventually try to gain access to the data these products create. Some, such as Apple's Audio Intelligence, are engineered to make this difficult, but not all are.
Another problem is social: if secretly documenting conversations becomes the norm, private conversations become less spontaneous and open. Juston Payne, a senior director of product management at Google, told CNN that merely alerting bystanders does not help much and can feel disempowering.
What EFF suggests
EFF notes that many past tech products failed to catch on, and if the public does not want these devices, companies will have to back away. It encourages people to send feedback to Apple, which launched Audio Intelligence in beta, to speak politely with device users, and to report abusive videos. Users themselves are advised to make it clear when they are recording and to do so only with consent. EFF discloses that Apple is one of its donors.
