The Paris prosecutor’s office has opened several investigations after receiving complaints from women who were filmed in the street with camera-equipped connected glasses without their knowledge or consent, authorities confirmed on Tuesday.
Prosecutors described a “growing trend on social media” in which women are filmed in public using smart glasses and the resulting footage is published online without their permission.
Formal Charges and Penalties
The investigations have been opened for “dissemination, through an online public communication service, of a montage or content generated by non-apparent algorithmic processing representing the image or words of a person without their consent.”
Under French law, that offense carries a maximum penalty of two years in prison and a fine of €45,000. Prosecutors added that in some cases, investigations were also opened for “sexual assault” when the incidents involved non-consensual sexual gestures.
Warning From Child Protection Hotline
The cases follow an alert issued on September 8 by e-Enfance, the association that operates France’s national hotline 3018 for victims of digital violence. The group warned of a rising wave of humiliating videos recorded with camera-equipped glasses and circulated online.
The prosecutor’s office echoed that warning, pointing to a “growing trend on social networks consisting of filming women in the street with connected glasses without their consent and publishing the videos online.”
Meta Points to Built-In Safeguards
Contacted for comment, Meta, the American manufacturer of the Ray-Ban smart glasses at the center of the complaints, said it has introduced safeguards designed to prevent users from secretly recording people.
“Every pair is equipped with an LED light that flashes when you film or take photos, and which cannot be turned off,” a company spokesperson said.
Despite such measures, the complaints highlight mounting concerns over how wearable camera technology can be used to capture and distribute images of individuals without their awareness — a practice that French authorities now appear determined to pursue through the courts.
