ARE THOSE SUNGLASSES FILMING ME?! Meta Ray-Ban Creepiness Fight Opens in a Dead Heat

In my day, if a man in sunglasses stared at you on the bus, the worst he could do was stare. Now, you young people tell me, those very same sunglasses might be quietly making a little film of you. A new market on Morfi asks the question plainly: are Meta Ray-Bans creepy? Less than a day in, the crowd is split right down the middle, like two sisters fighting over the last slice of pie.

Here's what has the kettle whistling. The worry, as Wikipedia's entry on the glasses puts it, is that the frames look like ordinary Ray-Ban sunglasses, so people nearby may not know they're being recorded or photographed. That isn't just a theory. CBC reports that a Vancouver woman said a stranger secretly recorded her and posted the clip online, where it collected tens of thousands of views in a week. Meta took it down within a day of her request. TikTok, she said, did not.

The grown-ups in government are paying attention as well. ABC News reports that Norway plans a temporary ban on smart glasses in certain public places such as parks, museums, schools and gyms, though not a blanket ban. Meta, for its part, says its little recording light and its usage guidelines deal with the privacy worries. It has also brought out an audio-only version with no camera at all, which says something, rather like a baker who starts selling bread without the raisins once enough people complain about the raisins.

So what does the crowd make of it? On Morfi, where people back their opinions with real money, "Yes, creepy" sits at 50% consensus with 31 holders, and "No, perfectly normal" sits at 50% with 28 holders. That's a dead tie, my dears, and nobody gets to call themselves the winner yet. Altogether 34 traders have put $117,333 behind their opinions, which for a fight that's barely out of the oven is a lot of people already crowding the kitchen.

Now here's Grandma's opinion, and it's only an opinion. A gadget isn't creepy all by itself. A teapot isn't creepy. But a teapot that might be filming you, and that you can't tell apart from an ordinary teapot, does make you wonder who's pouring. When a company has to put a little light on its product so strangers know they're being watched, and then sells a version with no camera to calm everybody down, I think the company has already answered the question for us. Though I'll admit the "No" side has a point too: plenty of people wear these to listen to their music and mind their own business, and they shouldn't be treated like suspects at the post office.

What to watch next: whether Norway actually goes through with its ban, how the US lawsuit plays out (Euronews reports it claims sensitive footage was reviewed by human contractors, which Meta says is filtered to protect privacy), and of course which side breaks this tie first. If you've got an opinion, and I suspect you do, come and join the market on Morfi and put your money where your eyes are. Just keep your sunglasses pointed somewhere polite.