UK Cinemas Move to Ban Meta Smart Glasses

Meta pushed back hard. "People use our glasses because they're helpful and let them stay in the moment, from listening to music to live translation or hands-free calls," a Meta spokesman told The Guardian. "They also provide critical new technology for people in the blind and low-vision community and limiting how people can use this technology would be a major step backwards."

The spokesman added: "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."

Meta says a small flashing LED activates when the glasses are recording, and that frequently updated tamper-detection technology stops users from covering the light mid-recording.

Wetherspoons chief executive Tim Martin was blunter. "The general code that applies in our pubs, and most pubs, is that you can't film customers or employees without their permission," he said. "Meta glasses seem to breach this code, and common sense, by enabling surreptitious surveillance, so our instinct is to say turn off the cameras." He compared the move to the chain's effort to stop customers playing videos out loud in its pubs.

ATG Theatres, which owns the Bristol Hippodrome, the Edinburgh Playhouse and several London venues, says filming is not allowed and that anyone wearing the glasses during a show will be asked to remove them.