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Meta takes down a critical video about meta AI Glasses after filming at Meta

208 pointsby 3h agoreddit.com
86 comments
2h agoHN ↗

This hypocrisy is not at all surprising. The modus operandi for these people has been rules for thee, but not for me for quite a while now.

2h agoHN ↗

Feel free to point out the hypochrisy. I'll remind you that sharing a video you took of someone without their consent is not the same as recording them and keeping the video strictly for yourself

2h agoHN ↗

It is not as you feel any different when you are being recorded. Once recorded, you don't know what they will do with the video.

2h agoHN ↗

I agree, I cannot control what other people will do. Are you applying this fear to all other facets of your life? I guess not, since that would mean you'd live in a state of constant fear and paranoia.

2h agoHN ↗

since that would mean you'd live in a state of constant fear and paranoia.

we do indeed live in a low trust society as of now.

2h agoHN ↗

Users of these devices already share that data with Meta.

2h agoHN ↗

Where do you get the "without their consent" bit from?

The hypocrisy is probably located around here:

"I've been making satirical videos about all kinds of things for ten years: Gaza, Ukraine, refugees. Funny videos that push boundaries and provoke discussion. But I've never experienced a video being removed before.

2h agoHN ↗

This person was not trespassing on Meta property and nothing indicates that he was harassing employees who refused to be interviewed. It is perfectly legal in the Netherlands to record people in public places.

You don't need someone's consent to record in public, and if any of the employees objected to the publication of the recording, they could consult with an attorney about a portrait rights claim. Such a claim should be adjudicated by a court, not Facebook.

And let's be clear about the context here: these types of glasses are used by "content creators" to do street interviews that are published online, and they're also used to record all sorts of junk/nonsense ("pranks", pickup artist BS, etc.).

Meta doesn't seem to have a problem with content recorded with these glasses being posted on its platforms, even when it's objectionable, because it's literally everywhere. The only problem here, obviously, was that he was recording Meta employees.

2h agoHN ↗

It's illegal to record people in public spaces in Germany. Not sure how NL is important here, did I miss something?

2h agoHN ↗

Roel Maalderink visited the company's Amsterdam office

2h agoHN ↗

It's illegal to record people in public spaces in Germany.

That's wild. In Ireland, there's no expectation of privacy in a public place, so you can record without issue.

2h agoHN ↗

Yeah, Germany is different here. I am not 100% sure, but in Germany it is allowed if you are not focusing on any particular individual person. It is difficult to argue in absolute terms, which is why most consider public photos forbidden completely (unless for private/personal, very narrow use). Nowadays, in Germany, it has helped me to consider everything forbidden, unless it is explicitly allowed somewhere.

1h agoHN ↗

It's because of history. That's why Germany also resisted Google Street View initially.

1h agoHN ↗

That's pretty understandable, and I've no particular issue with it (although I'm now aware I broke quite a few photo- and video- laws when I was last in Berlin ;) )

1h agoHN ↗

In Sweden for instance it's a bit in-between (unless the law has changed). You're allowed to film in public if you're using a non-stationary camera, but stationary cameras require a permit.

1h agoHN ↗

That's an important caveat. We kind of have something similar, in that if you install CCTV, and if it captures an area where people would expect privacy (ie, looking through a window, or into someone's back garden ... which has its own caveats around being a public place or not) you have a right to have that area removed from video coverage.

53m agoHN ↗

Yes, but youre not allowed to use it commercially afaik. Even a youtube clip which is monetised is commercial, I guess.

2h agoHN ↗

It wasn't in Germany, and my understanding is that in Germany, the issue isn't the video, it's the recording of the audio conversation.

Anyway, still not applicable in the Netherlands.

2h agoHN ↗

In Germany it would also be about the video.

I cant just take a photo of a person or even car on the street and just share it online unless its clear the car or person is not the central point of the photo standing alone.

Only few exceptions on that

2h agoHN ↗

And? This wasn't in Germany.

But you raise an interesting point: if this would be against the law in Germany, why is Facebook waiting for these glasses to be banned? It never should have made these available in Germany, and should be using technical means to ensure that they cannot function inside of Germany's borders.

So it's just more proof of the hypocrisy. Meta doesn't care about the privacy of the plebs.

54m agoHN ↗

Are these constantly filming without user control? How about regular cameras, just ban them?

1h agoHN ↗

This did not happen in Germany! If my grandmother was a bike she would have two wheels.

1h agoHN ↗

That's not true in that simplified form.

It's perfectly fine to take pictures of the Brandenburger Tor for example and post them online. There will likely be people in that picture but as they are not the main aspect of the image, it will be fine.

It's something different if you zoom in on somebody in that scene and he becomes the main point of the image. Then his personal rights overwhelm the right to document public spaces.

2h agoHN ↗

FALSE! It's legal to record in public spaces and share it if you are not targeting any individual in particular. What the author did was instead purpusefully focus on those particular employees.

2h agoHN ↗

Yelling "FALSE" doesn't make you correct.

You could use Google, ChatGPT, Claude, etc. to educate yourself about the law before you post.

2h agoHN ↗

Are you claiming I didn't inform myself? Can you provide some proof for this accusation?

2h agoHN ↗

Yes, you're claiming that it's illegal to record people in public in the Netherlands. This is incorrect.

Under Article 139a of the Dutch Criminal Code, you are legally allowed to record any conversation in which you are a participant. You don't need to inform or obtain permission from another party.

There's no law that forbids recording people in public spaces. GDPR and portrait rights claims may be implicated, but if Facebook wants to take the position that it removed this man's videos as an adjudication of claims those recorded never brought themselves, it begs the question: why is it selling its glasses and allowing them to record in the Netherlands in the first place?

2h agoHN ↗

you're claiming that it's illegal to record people in public in the Netherlands

No I haven't, you should re-read what I actually wrote.

2h agoHN ↗

Author made the people he was recording unrecognizable. So even though he focused on specific employees he didn't violate their right to privacy which means it isn't illegal.

https://www.anp.nl/blog/305/privacywetgeving-mag-je-filmen-o... is a decent article(in Dutch) about some of the complexities of Dutch privacy law when it comes to filming people in public spaces.

2h agoHN ↗

Supposing the video has not been edited further, since the original was taken down, their voices were not censored and there are people in the video who were not in the background and who clearly didn't want to be filmed. I agree that the law has many intricacies, but here I think it's much more the case of their privacy being broken and their consent being ignored

1h agoHN ↗

Wouldn't the ones in the background match exactly this part of your point though?

if you are not targeting any individual in particular.

2h agoHN ↗

"these types of glasses are used by "content creators" to do street interviews that are published online"

This to me is wild. I use the glasses to film my kids and share it on private hard-drives with grandparents, that's it. It's wild to me that I can surreptitiously film someone on the street and publish it online for views, and the only recourse the person has, is to go to court? Seems insane.

Why does Hollywood require a release but Youtube does not?

EDIT: People are getting hung-up on my use case. But that's not the question posed here.

2h agoHN ↗

Wasn't all that long ago people posted pictures of their kids on social media. Someone is going to watch your 12 year old in a swimsuit.

2h agoHN ↗

From my private hard-drive?

And unless Meta want's to pay me $1000's in fines (pretty sure my videos are worth less to them), sharing with Meta analytics is opt-in.

1h agoHN ↗

If the whole publishing industry can't collect copyright violation fines from Meta what makes you think you can?

2h agoHN ↗

You might want to think twice about this. The videos from those glasses are uploaded and used for AI training, for which they are also reviewed by humans in Kenya, according to the explainer from Bits Of Freedom (with English subs, here: https://www.bitsoffreedom.nl/campagnes/gluurbril/)

2h agoHN ↗

Posted article has nothing on my data ending up in Kenya. If you mean it'll be used by Meta Analytics, that's an opt-in feature (easy Fines in California if they violate this)

I agree posting videos of people without their consent should be illegal, and I thought it was? Why does Hollywood require a release form but YouTube does not?

But that's regardless of whether it was filmed on Meta Glasses or a pocket camera.

1h agoHN ↗

Fines can be just a cost for the business of training AI if they deem it valuable enough. Is there any enforcement apart from fines?

1h agoHN ↗

If you mean it'll be used by Meta Analytics, that's an opt-in feature (easy Fines in California if they violate this)

And, as we all know, tech companies and especially Meta never ever lie or trick you. They were never caught red handed sharing your information and violating your privacy despite claiming the opposite. They also are never fined because they are so careful, and the fines and consequences are always big enough to make them clean up their act.

Oh, wait, for a moment I forgot about the past two decades.

1h agoHN ↗

It is bizarre to me that you think Meta will be a good steward of your data, regardless of what they've told you or what the law says they can and can't do.

1h agoHN ↗

Some auditors in the USA did that already. I was surprised to see that, since here in Europe, people have a much more negative view of Facebook's spyglasses. I think it is similar to getting money from Facebook directly, just as other "sports" people do product placement, such as for Red Bull (Dom Tomato; and many in the bboying scene). I find this annoying to no ends, but money convinces people. My problem is that I am not interested in ads and no "argument" can convince me otherwise. Since I am not interested in ads, I don't watch it and I don't buy from such companies. It places some restrictions onto me, since many companies advertise, in particular the big ones, but it also means I get to know smaller companies better. (Sometimes there is a de-facto monopoly, so I can not always avoid all companies and their ads; in particular for things you really need, such as food and so forth.)

the only recourse the person has, is to go to court

Well, typically, if you are in public, you can do just about anything with regards to recording. In private the laws are a bit different. Either way it is a barrier.

1h agoHN ↗

Not just their grandparents, the chances are that Meta is processing those videos you take of your kids too even when they say they aren't.

They've played fast and loose with copyrighted material for years, as shown in court records.

They company was founded on the principle of breaking privacy law, as highlighted in Zuckerberg's famous Dumb Fucks conversation.

Meta does what Meta can get away with and you really can't do anything about it without exceptionally deep pockets.

The publishing industry has more money than you do and they failed too.

2h agoHN ↗

is perfectly legal in the Netherlands to record people in public places.

it's perfectly legal to record but publish, especially in but not limited to a commercial context without explicit consent violates portrait rights under the GDPR in the EU. And I strongly suspect if you posted a video in which people explicitly object to being filmed and flag that on Facebook or other platforms it will get taken down.

1h agoHN ↗

portrait rights claim

Note that the employees were not recognisable; their faces were blurred out.

22m agoHN ↗

But we are talking about Meta removing content from their own website, right?

In contrast to what people think, Facebook IS NOT public infrastructure.

If Meta removes some content from Meta website, and you don't like that, it's a you problem, right?

1h agoHN ↗

They made a device that will create this problem by the millions for other people, they should have it inflicted on them every day.

22m agoHN ↗

The mental gymnastics that people do here to defend these untouchable corporations is disgusting. From Meta to OpenAi, for a lot of people here it's just a "yeah, but actually". I've reported everything from holocaust glorification to videos of people being filmed in public in europe just to be humiliated, to obvious far right propaganda done by russian linked accounts, nothing goes against Meta's policy anymore, except when it's about them...

14m agoHN ↗

The hypocrisy is that meta is creating a tool that their employees are very uncomfortable seeing used on them.

What the law says about consent is irrelevant to the hypocrisy, and the videos are automatically uploaded to meta without anyone's consent anyway. You know this very well, there is no need to cosplay the smart devil's advocate.

44m agoHN ↗

We should be thankful for the small mercy they their manta at least rhymes.

30m agoHN ↗

Well, it is and it isn't hypocrisy.

It is hypocrisy because Meta are knowingly creating a product that is perfectly suited for filming or photographing people without their knowledge. I find that it speaks ill of someone's character to pretend otherwise. And then they react badly when the very thing that these products enable happens to them. Demonstrating how this is a problem. They try to pretend it isn't a problem and then their actions demonstrate that it IS a problem.

It isn't because we do have laws that actually cover these things already. Of course, they're not the same across the world, law enforcement are not always aware of what the laws are, and this causes confrontations and sometimes overreach. There are also different legal systems that interpret laws differently. For instance in some legal systems the letter of the law carries more weight. In other legal systems the intent of the law is what matters.

There are two great risks here:

1) we pretend we can get by with existing laws. That the existing laws had enough foresight to meaningfully fulfil what the laws were intended to accomplish.

2) we can overreact and damage legitimate freedoms in our eagerness to solve an immediate problem.

For instance, where I live there is a law on the books that prohibits photographing someone being arrested. The law was well-meaning. It was there to protect people from being plastered all over the media until guilt has been determined in a court of law. But it would also prohibit someone from documenting police brutality during an arrest. So the law was never enacted because it failed to balance interests properly.

Right now, where I live, there is a real risk that rules about photography may become overly strict because politicians feel they have to demonstrate an ability to act. So they may end up passing laws that have unforeseen consequences while probably failing to make much of a difference anyway.

We know why these cameras pose a problem. Let's not insult each other's intelligence by pretending they are exactly like poking a traditional camera in someone's face. They're not and we should be able to agree on simple facts. But we also know that we need to have a public discussion about what we're going to do about this so we don't end up introducing draconian laws that take away freedoms we should have. For instance the freedom to document abuses of power, criminal activity, artistic expression etc.

2h agoHN ↗

Hopefully the Streisand effect will be in full force on this one.

2h agoHN ↗

Instagram is full of videos of guys harassing and antagonizing people in public as "pranks". And this is not some coincidence, since both products are from the same company, they basically unleashed this for engagement.

2h agoHN ↗

Yes, having a taste of their own medicine.

2h agoHN ↗

Great idea for protests outside meta offices. Just stand on the public right of way outside the entrance, smiling in your meta ray bans.

2h agoHN ↗

The title is misleading - it sounds like they specifically went there to harass employees by filming them, and Meta took down the videos for harassment, like they routinely do if this is reported on their platforms. I'm really not sure what the issue is.

2h agoHN ↗

Having watched the video, this hardly meets the standard of 'harassment' or bullying. This is a vox pop, that people can (and do) walk away from.

1h agoHN ↗

TBH this is tamer than 99% of the content published by Creeper Glasses users that Meta itself relentlessly shows to me.

2h agoHN ↗

In China the government controls the discourse. Here it's the corporations.

2h agoHN ↗

Who remembers the picture of inside Zuckerberg's home that got leaked with the grotesks living their private lives?

1h agoHN ↗

Epstein Glasses by Meta. For people who don't do consent.

2h agoHN ↗

Corporation under no obligation to uphold journalistic standards. In other news, water still wet.

2h agoHN ↗

Corporate censorship. Do we want such a future in general, where big companies decide onto you what you can see and what you can not see? These walled digital gardens they built up are already such a huge issue.

Now I don't depend on CIAbook, formerly known as Facebook, in any way, shape or form. And I don't use Suckerberg's Spyglasses either - hopefully others feel in a similar way, but unfortunately money convinces people, and I noticed a few "auditors" using spyglasses allegedly for "protection" (though, why they don't use normal vide cameras instead, beats me - perhaps they are not truthful). I fear that the spyglasses will be a success since Suckerberg is so sold on spying on mankind. If Google were not to exist, Facebook would be the number #1 evil company right now.

29m agoHN ↗

Okay I'll bite. What do you mean by auditors in scare quotes? Like actual auditors of business practices? Or something else?

36m agoHN ↗

Everyone keeps saying he is dutch but he was speaking a different language in the video. I was quite confused because not everything was even dubbed correctly. Also its an auto dubbing through AI. Didn't realize it got automatically selected. So annoying.

26m agoHN ↗

As far as I know he is Dutch and he sounds like a native Dutch speaker. But he but also uses English with some of the people that do not speak Dutch.

20m agoHN ↗

Yes exactly. But YouTube selected some AI translation voice over which I did not realize first. So I was quite confused. Once I selected the original audio it was obvious that he is dutch.

19m agoHN ↗

He did harass them a bit.

Maybe I'm too European to understand, where exactly is harassment occurring? He's asking Meta employees questions, doesn't seem to follow them around, and when they walk away or say no, he doesn't exactly force them to stay or anything? Doesn't there have to be some intimidation or humiliation or similar for it to be harassment? Or asking employees what they think of the products they develop and support is the harassment part?

13m agoHN ↗

You don’t understand the difference between recording things in good faith vs recording things because you want a reaction you can exploit for personal gains.

13m agoHN ↗

I've heard of journalism before, yes. So? Since when is this harassment?

Can't believe we have corporate bootlickers on HN of all places, I thought we still cared a tiny sliver about privacy? It all went away when we all gave away our private data to the AI companies, or what's the deal?

6m agoHN ↗

Can't believe we have corporate bootlickers on HN of all places,

There are a very large contingent on HN who are against restrictions on corporate activities because they envision themselves as potential beneficiaries of a low regulation environment. Many of them also apparently view criticism itself as a restriction.

2m agoHN ↗

I am just an American, but I live in Portugal and it is legally not allowed to film people in public without their consent (you also can't have a street facing camera like in the US). Moreover, people take this rule very seriously if it appears that you are doing so (I know some kids who have had uncomfortable interactions because they weren't aware).

I don't think blurring faces fully addresses that (though I'm not commenting on legality in Amsterdam).

6m agoHN ↗

Asking questions is harassment now?

It's obvious he's making a point, but there is no harassment that I see.

FFS ... it's this kind of goal-post shifting that ends with sign-holding grannies being arrested for terrorism.

37m agoHN ↗

But the video was not just the view from his glasses?

22m agoHN ↗

Outside basic network effects like real names Facebook has contributed essentially nothing of value to the world. (And no, don't tell me "React, Pytorch". People were screaming about React's license) The network effects barely matter too because their AI bans you whenever and feeds are so useless you never see what anyone posts

Instagram went from a site for photographers to Reels everywhere (and login walls on every page)

Zuckerberg is awful. Awful, awful, awful.

20m agoHN ↗

don't tell me "React,

dont worry i wont lmao

14m agoHN ↗

I sometimes wonder how he's still CEO.

Other than ad revenue, the company hasn't had any big wins. VR didn't take off. Metaverse didn't take off. AI models didn't take off. All multi-billion dollar ventures. Any other board would have sacked him by now.

5m agoHN ↗

I sometimes wonder how he's still CEO.

Because of the existence of Class B shares.