Shubnam saw a video on Instagram that had been filmed at a protest held in Delhi this spring, as they were moving into their new home. The 38-year-old transfeminine graphic designer and educator had reacted after a content creator questioned them for wearing “women’s clothing” while they were dressed in a green sari and had a shaved head. They later realized that the encounter had been recorded with smart glasses resembling Meta’s ordinary Wayfarers.
The footage was turned into a mocking video and viewed millions of times; anti-trans slurs, reaction videos and AI-generated memes spread from Instagram to X and YouTube. Shubnam said the footage had caused great harm in their life and that they had not worn a sari outside their neighborhood since then.
Experts say similar cases could increase as smart glasses become more widespread. While non-consensual image sharing and covert recording are already widespread in India, law enforcement agencies are using facial recognition systems and AI-powered glasses.
- Cyberstalking, sexual extortion, deepfakes and other forms of online abuse are increasing.
- In India, smart glasses are becoming part of the rapidly growing wearable-device market.
- Reliance Jio will offer a competitor priced below $105 to Meta’s glasses, which cost $420 in India, later this year.
- Because the cameras go unnoticed, covert recording is becoming easier; “stealth mode” modifications designed to turn off the recording light are available.
Why it matters
This case shows that the privacy issue surrounding smart glasses is not limited to the moment of recording; as footage is taken out of context and reproduced across different platforms, the pressure on the victim can intensify. For people whose visibility in public intersects with online harassment and AI-powered forms of abuse, hard-to-detect cameras create a new vulnerability. As problems involving non-consensual sharing and covert recording persist in India, the entry of cheaper devices into the market is bringing to the fore the question of who will use these tools and under what oversight. The fundamental issue that remains is how non-consensual recording will be detected when the recording light is turned off, and what platforms will do to protect victims after the footage has spread.
Background
India is not a new name in the FikirPilot archive: we have published 4 reports mentioning the name in the last 90 days; the latest is dated September 23, 2026.