Google’s Intelligent Eyewear push with the first Android XR glasses from Warby Parker and Gentle Monster are forced into an unfortunate uphill battle. The “perv glasses” stigma is very real because, frankly, early movers in this category didn’t respect privacy. Here’s how Android XR and Gemini are handling the camera and privacy on “Intelligent Eyewear,” and why I think Google has struck a near-perfect balance.

To quickly summarize the problem at hand (and name names), Meta’s smart glasses developed a reputation of being abused by bad actors who would disable the visible privacy LED (which Meta only recently fixed) or use these glasses in tasteless ways. Combine that with improper handling of recordings on Meta’s part and it’s a recipe for distrust and an earned social stigma. It’s not like Google is a simple bystander here, either. The original Google Glass project was met with the “Glasshole” stigma, and it’s something that Google has clearly learned a lot of lessons from.