Meta Glasses Creeper

A tongue-in-cheek costume has been created to take aim at people who use smart glasses to film others without their consent, raising awareness of growing concerns around privacy, harassment and technology. It comes as Meta's AI smart glasses have been branded 'creepy' and an invasion of privacy amid cases of people using them to secretly film women and girls and then posting the footage to social media without their consent.

Anti-scam campaigner and founder of IgnoredBy, Jonny Stanton created the satirical Halloween costume dubbed the ‘Meta Glasses Creeper’, designed to highlight concerns about people using camera-equipped smart glasses to secretly record others in public.

In the UK, Meta smart glasses are banned in JD Wetherspoon pubs across the UK, alongside multiple other hospitality, entertainment, and legal venues, due to fears over covert video recording and privacy. Whilst in Norway plans temporary ban on smart glasses in some public places and in some countries pubs have banned them

Inspired by the growing visibility of Meta smart glasses, the costume takes the familiar format of a novelty Halloween outfit and gives it a darker, real-world twist. Packaged in the style of a classic fancy-dress costume, it features a man wearing black smart glasses alongside the tagline: “Spotted. Filmed. Reported.”

The packaging pokes fun at the behaviour of people who exploit wearable technology, listing the supposed costume features as “sneaky smile”, “creepy vibes” and “zero respect for boundaries”.
The idea highlights concerns that discreet recording devices could be used to film people without their knowledge or consent, with women and girls particularly vulnerable to unwanted attention and invasive behaviour.

Jonny Stanton, Anti-scam campaigner and founder of IgnoredBy commented:
“Technology should make our lives better, not make it easier for people to secretly film, harass or intimidate others. The ‘Meta Glasses Creeper’ hopefully makes a serious point: just because you can record someone doesn’t mean you have the right to.”

By turning the issue into a deliberately provocative Halloween costume, Stanton hopes to spark conversation about the boundaries between technology, privacy and personal safety, and challenge the idea that filming someone without their consent is harmless.

The costume's mock packaging includes the warning signs of a so-called “Meta Glasses Creeper”, from secretly recording people to sharing private moments, using humour to draw attention to behaviour that can have serious consequences.

News reports and online discussions have raised growing concerns about how camera-equipped smart glasses could be used to secretly film unsuspecting members of the public, turning everyday interactions into opportunities for invasive recording. Unlike smartphones, which are generally visible when someone takes a photograph or video, smart glasses can look like ordinary eyewear, making it harder for people to know when they are being recorded. This has prompted questions about privacy, consent and how people can protect themselves when cameras are discreetly built into wearable technology.

There are also fears that footage captured without permission could be uploaded to social media, shared widely or used to embarrass, intimidate or harass those featured in it. Women and girls face particular concerns around the potential for covert recording to facilitate unwanted attention, objectification and other forms of invasive behaviour. While smart glasses have legitimate uses, critics argue that the technology creates new challenges for privacy and personal safety, particularly when recording can happen discreetly and without an obvious indication to others.

The ‘Meta Glasses Creeper’ costume aims to bring these concerns into the open, challenging the idea that having the technology to record someone automatically gives you the right to do so. By turning a serious issue into a provocative Halloween costume, it aims to highlight the real dangers of covert filming, harassment and privacy invasion in a funny yet scary way.

The #IgnoredByInsta campaign launched last year, aimed to highlight the rising number of scams, identity theft, and emotional harm caused by Instagram’s lack of human support, was blocked by outdoor advertisers despite sites being selected and costs discussed. The reason? Fear of upsetting Meta. But it plans to go live this year.