The CNIL sounds the alarm over smart glasses, as Meta piles on with an AI collar

On May 11, the CNIL published the results of a survey conducted with Harris Interactive among 2,128 people representative of those aged 18 and over. 67% of French people consider connected glasses a privacy concern, and 81% believe that the risk of video capture is greater than that of a smartphone. Nearly nine out of ten people want to be notified when they are being filmed.Following on from this, the CNIL launched its first action plan dedicated to sensor-equipped wearables and coordinated an initiative with the EDPB on a European scale.

What is Meta preparing with this pendant?

Three weeks later, an internal memo from Alex Himel, Meta’s VP of wearables, charts a course that runs in exactly the opposite direction. Meta is reportedly testing an AI-powered pendant in the coming year, directly derived from the technology of Limitless, a startup acquired in December 2025. The Limitless pendant recorded and transcribed conversations in real time using a built-in microphone. Although Limitless’s website is still online and offers the product for $299, production of the device was halted after the acquisition. The Limitless team joined Reality Labs, Meta’s hardware division.

The memo also describes a service called “Wearables for Work”, aimed at businesses. Meta is targeting sales of 10 million wearables in the second half of 2026 by combining new products with international expansion. The company already relies on its partnership with EssilorLuxottica to produce Ray-Ban Meta and Oakley models. Two million pairs have been sold since late 2023. In France, the launch of the Ray-Ban Display was postponed due to insufficient stock in the United States, with waitlists stretching into 2026.

On the financial front, Reality Labs reported a loss of 4.03 billion dollars in the first quarter of 2026, with revenue of 402 million. Cumulative losses since the end of 2020 exceed 83 billion dollars.

The challenge for Meta lies in the precedents. Google Glass, launched in 2013, was pulled from the consumer market after massive public backlash (wearers were nicknamed “Glassholes,”a pun that is a little too flowery to translate). The Humane AI Pin, an AI pin costing several hundred euros launched in 2024, was a commercial failure. But the situation has changed: Ray-Ban Meta glasses are selling in Europe, the market exists, and consumers are getting used to wearable sensors. The recent success of Plaud AI is another example.

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Source: The Information