Meta smart glasses face dual privacy and courtroom scrutiny in India and U.S. cases

Delhi lawsuit targets Meta over alleged café filming

A man identified only as X, represented by advocate Apar Gupta, sent a legal notice dated Aug. 24 accusing an Instagram creator of secretly filming him at a Costa Coffee outlet in Khan Market on July 24 using Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses and uploading the footage without consent. The reel had amassed more than 4.19 lakh views on Instagram before the complaint. The notice seeks the video's removal, a formal apology, and Rs 2.05 crore in damages from both the creator and Meta Platforms. The Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF), which is representing the man pro bono, said the case may be among the first in India to test whether a smart-glasses manufacturer can be held liable for harm stemming from a product's design.

Notice challenges Meta on two fronts

The legal notice implicates Meta both as the operator of Instagram, which allegedly kept the reel online despite a complaint, and as the developer of the camera-equipped eyewear used to record the man. The complaint argues that the glasses' recording indicator is too easy to miss. Nothing in the notice has been tested in court, and its claims remain allegations at this stage.

Ohio custody dispute turns on Meta Glasses in court

In a separate U.S. proceeding, Rep. Max Miller's ex-wife Emily Moreno's lawyers demanded he hand over his Meta Glasses for inspection after he wore them to a July 28 hearing in their child custody fight over their two-year-old daughter. Filings noted that "\[Miller\] had never worn any sort of eyewear to a hearing previously," and raised the possibility that he could have set the glasses down and been recording private conversations during deliberations. The filings also cited Miller's "history of surreptitious recording" and his references to Ohio's single-party consent law.

Miller denies covert recordings, calls motion harassment

Miller's legal team fired back late last week, submitting a sworn statement from the congressman asserting that he was not recording during the hearing. His attorneys accused Moreno's side of pursuing "the latest in a series of filings that have nothing to do with the best interests of the parties' minor child and everything to do with generating negative publicity for \[Miller\] and harassing him through the discovery process." Both Miller's and Moreno's spokespeople declined to comment. The Ohio Republican has publicly released multiple secret recordings he made of his ex-wife, including one that lent credence to her accusations that he dumped hot water on her in 2024, and has denied all abuse allegations against him.

Underlying disputes frame the smart-glasses scrutiny

The Meta Glasses dispute sits atop a wider custody fight in which Moreno has accused Miller of abuse and raised concerns over their daughter's broken collarbone, with a police report noting "what appeared to be a handprint bruise" on the child's shoulder. Miller filed a domestic violence case against Moreno that was formally dropped in July. Earlier in the litigation, Miller's team moved to disqualify Moreno's lawyer, veteran family law attorney Andrew Zashin, before withdrawing that effort in July. The cases remain unresolved, and the court has not yet ruled on whether Miller must surrender the glasses for inspection.