Privacy fears are stalling the push for AI wearables meant to replace smartphones, as device makers from Meta to Samsung confront a wave of legal, regulatory, and consumer resistance. The backlash centers on always-on cameras and microphones that capture bystanders without consent, threatening a market tech firms see as the next major computing platform.
Meta's Ray-Ban smart glasses, built with EssilorLuxottica, have become the most visible target. Several UK venues, including pub chain Wetherspoon, have restricted the frames. A lawsuit filed against Meta and Luxottica of America alleges that human annotators viewed and labeled recordings of people in private moments - changing clothes, using bathrooms, handling financial information - after footage was uploaded to Meta's servers to train its AI systems.
"No reasonable consumer who was promised privacy could ever have concluded these devices would intentionally or inadvertently capture them in their most private moments," said Ryan Clarkson, whose firm represents the plaintiffs, in comments to Reuters.
Meta said a recording light that cannot be turned off protects bystanders and that the camera disables if the light is covered. The company disputes the lawsuit's allegations and said reviewing user data to improve products is standard industry practice, adding that it filters out identifying information.
Samsung and startups search for trusted form factors
Samsung plans to enter the smart-glasses market later this year through partnerships with Gentle Monster and Warby Parker, but does not see the devices as smartphone replacements. "The winning form factors will be the ones that make interaction more natural, useful and trusted," said Jay Kim, executive vice president at Samsung's mobile division. As AI takes on more tasks, he said, users will demand systems that remain secure and under their control.
Several startups are betting that removing cameras or making recording deliberate will ease concerns. Shenzhen-based Even Realities, founded by former Apple engineer Will Wang, launched camera-free G1 glasses in 2024 and its G2 flagship in November 2025. Wang told Reuters that consumers increasingly link smart glasses with covert recording. The company, valued at $1 billion in July, expects to end the year with a few hundred thousand users, about 90% of them consumers.
San Francisco-based Pocket sells a phone-mounted recorder that requires a button press to capture conversations, making recording as visible as using a phone camera. The company said roughly 170,000 devices were in use eight months after launch, including among workers at DoorDash, Michelin, and Santander. Plaud, which has 2.5 million users and more than $100 million in annual recurring revenue, built its Plaud One earbud system to record only when activated and to alert bystanders through lights or audio.
The local processing wager
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told journalists in December that always-on AI devices will ultimately need to process data locally rather than continuously send information to the cloud. "You want a device that you can trust … that can have full context and know when to be helpful, when not to," he said. "If a device is going to be listening to your whole life and watching your whole life, most people will not want that running on a cloud server." He added that local AI processing "may take a couple of years longer" depending on how quickly OpenAI can scale its processors.
Meta is expected to unveil camera-free smart glasses as early as Wednesday at its Connect conference, according to media reports, highlighting the balancing act facing companies chasing a share of the more than $600 billion smartphone market.
A familiar pattern with higher stakes
The central tension is that AI devices become more useful the more environmental data they collect - including footage of people who never consented. Jitesh Ubrani, director at research firm IDC, noted that smartphones faced similar unease when cameras and microphones first became ubiquitous. "As a society, we want to make sure there's consent and awareness when people are being recorded," he said. "That's different from being opposed to recording altogether."
The outcome of the privacy debate could determine whether AI wearables achieve mass adoption or stall under the weight of public distrust. The features that make them useful - always-on awareness - are the same features that risk becoming barriers.
Why this matters for legal, PR, and communications professionals
For legal teams, the Meta lawsuit signals a growing class of privacy litigation tied to AI data collection practices, particularly around consent and third-party annotation. Communications and PR professionals should expect heightened scrutiny of any wearable or ambient AI product launch, with covert recording fears now a mainstream consumer concern. Regulatory affairs specialists tracking these developments may find relevant frameworks covered in AI Regulatory Compliance Courses, while policy-focused communicators can explore AI Public Policy Courses. Insurance professionals should watch for emerging liability questions around devices that capture bystander data without explicit consent.
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