One of the Most Controversial Federal Agencies Is Banning Workers From Using Meta Smart Glasses
The agency said the consumer device could capture sensitive information and privacy groups have warned about facial recognition and surveillance risks.
- On Tuesday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement prohibited employees from wearing Meta's smart glasses on duty, citing privacy concerns over the devices' ability to record audio and video discreetly in federal workspaces.
- The Department of Homeland Security stated that personally owned body-worn cameras have always been prohibited, following reports of agents wearing the consumer devices during protests and immigration raids over the past year.
- Critics note the glasses' recording light is easily bypassed with a $2 sticker. Despite the ban, ICE requested $7.5 million in its 2027 budget to develop "operational prototypes of smart glasses."
- New York banned the devices in court buildings last month to prevent surreptitious recording, while the Air Force barred airmen from wearing smart glasses in uniform citing operational security risks.
- Budget documents indicate the agency aims to deploy proprietary smart glasses by next year with biometric identification capabilities. However, officials have not specified what oversight rules will govern data collection and storage for the program.
15 Articles
15 Articles
One of the most controversial federal agencies is banning workers from using Meta smart glasses
ICE has banned Meta smart glasses from federal workplaces over privacy concerns, even as DHS seeks funding for purpose-built smart glasses that could support biometric identification during immigration enforcement.
ICE Agents Will Have to Leave Their Meta Glasses at Home
Meta's camera-equipped eyewear just hit a wall at one of the US government's most scrutinized agencies. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has formally barred all staff from wearing Meta's smart glasses in the "federal workspace," saying the devices amount to personal body cameras that could inadvertently capture or transmit "sensitive information,...
Smart glasses create new opportunities and challenges. Europe should make them manageable with technical standards instead of regulating a new computing platform with the logic of minispys.
The Immigration and Customs Service has banned its employees from wearing Meta's smart glasses, becoming the last workplace to ban these devices for privacy reasons. In a policy memorandum issued on Tuesday, ICE indicated that it considered glasses, which can discreetly record video and audio, as a body camera. Consequently, "the use of Meta Glasses or similar devices could capture, record or transmit confidential information unintentionally, wh…
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