DuckDuckGo Mocks Meta’s AI Glasses With ‘Normal Sunglasses’

Meta is catching heat for selling AI-powered sunglasses that can record people without their knowledge, and DuckDuckGo has fired back with what it calls “the world’s most innovative anti-surveillance sunglasses.” The twist? They are just normal sunglasses.

Meta, the tech giant behind Facebook and Instagram, probably didn’t expect its new “Meta Glasses,” priced at up to $299 and promoted by celebrities like Kylie Jenner, to become a punchline. But internet users have quickly dubbed the product “pervert glasses,” and for good reason. The latest version packs photo and video capabilities, and some buyers have used them to secretly film strangers.

The Los Angeles Times has documented cases where women were approached by men wearing the glasses, only to later discover recordings of the encounter posted online without their consent. While the glasses feature a white light to signal recording, some determined users have found ways to disable it.

DuckDuckGo, a company that positions itself as a privacy-friendly alternative to data-mining rivals, has responded by teaming up with eyewear brand Knockaround to sell its own pair of shades. The selling point? They do absolutely nothing except sit on your face.

“No camera, no microphone, no AI, no battery, no electronics of any kind,” the product page reads. “Just a beautifully crafted pair of matte black sunglasses with a glossy DuckDuckGo logo, designed to block the sun and never send data to the cloud.”

“We’re obsessed with innovation. So when Big Tech started putting cameras in smart glasses, we asked ourselves a radical question: What if we just didn’t do that?” DuckDuckGo said in a July 30 social media post. “These are the first smart glasses guaranteed to never record nude videos of you and send them to random people. I never thought I’d have to guarantee that, but here we are.”

This isn’t just hyperbolic marketing. Reports indicate that Meta’s AI glasses have captured videos of users in intimate settings, such as having sex or using the bathroom, and those clips were later viewed by Kenyan subcontractors hired to train Meta’s AI systems.

Internal documents have also revealed Meta’s plans to embed facial recognition technology into the glasses. Dozens of rights groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, have warned that such a feature “would allow anyone wearing them to identify by name any strangers in their vicinity, including at protests, medical clinics, and businesses.”

The technology was briefly implemented without public access before being rolled back, but concerns persist that it could return. Lawmakers and privacy advocates in both the US and Europe have increasingly called for a ban on the glasses.

A British activist group called Everyone Hates Elon has launched a guerrilla marketing campaign against the product. One satirical ad at a London bus stop features the infamous sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein wearing the frames, with the tagline “glasses for people who don’t do consent” alongside the Meta logo.

“These glasses feel like they’re making perverts’ and abusers’ lives easier when we should actually be making women’s lives easier. They are pervert glasses,” a spokesperson told The Times of London. “We wanted to use Jeffrey Epstein to highlight who these glasses will be used by, and it’s powerful men and abusers.”

Given the backlash, it’s no surprise that DuckDuckGo’s tech-free alternative has become a hit. The company says the $35 shades sold out within a week of launch.