Popular pub chain Wetherspoon has banned customers from using the recording function on Meta glasses inside its venues amid privacy concerns.
The hospitality giant said it does not allow filming of customers or employees without consent, and that “Meta glasses seem to breach this code, and common sense, by enabling surreptitious surveillance”.
It added customers will be told to “turn off the cameras” if they want to enter any of its more than 800 venues.
It comes as criticism of the glasses mounts following concerns they are used to secretly film people, including women and children, putting them at risk of a slew of online and real-world harms.
Women have described feeling “violated” and “scared” by realising they had been secretly filmed by people wearing the glasses. Domestic abuse charity Refuge has repeatedly warned the glasses “threaten the safety of all women and girls in public, facilitating harassment, surveillance and other abuse”.
The glasses have also been banned in some schools and recently by Monopoly Events, the company behind Comic-Con, who banned Meta glasses from its events to stop “secret filming” of guests and attendees.
They are regularly used to film prank videos or “pick up” content, where women are approached by men who are unknowingly filming them and then posted to social media.
Instagram head Adam Mosseri recently said the platform would work to ban such content on the platform, saying the app’s owner Meta would fight the trend “every way that we can”.
In a statement on Thursday, a Wetherspoons spokesperson said: “Like many hospitality companies, Wetherspoon has CCTV cameras for security reasons, but their use is strictly controlled by data legislation.
“Apart from that, the general code that applies in our pubs, and most pubs, is that you can’t film customers or employees without their permission.
“Meta glasses seem to breach this code, and common sense, by enabling surreptitious surveillance, so our instinct is to say turn off the cameras. This is akin to our efforts to stop audible playing of videos in our pubs, which also invades people’s space.”
A Meta spokesperson said: “People use our glasses because they’re helpful and help them stay in the moment, from listening to music to live translation or hands-free calls. They also provide critical new technology for people who are low-sighted or hard of hearing and limiting how people can use this technology would be a major step backwards.
“Naturally some places shouldn’t be filmed at all and that’s reasonable but rules should be applied consistently. Our glasses have a light that turns on to let people know when a photo or video is taken, something smartphones and other cameras don’t have.”
