Meta being taken to court over smart glasses
In the media image: Ubaid E. Alyafizi on Unsplash+
Three Dutch consumer organisations are taking Meta to court over its smart glasses. In 'NRC', Professor of Law and Digital Rights Gerrit-Jan Zwenne warns that Big Tech pulls out all the stops with teams of highly skilled and expensive lawyers.
The Dutch Consumers’ Association (Consumentenbond), Offlimits and The Firewall sent Meta a formal notice demanding that the company modify its smart glasses or withdraw them from the market as long as they can be used to film people without their knowledge. The deadline expired on Tuesday. The organisations now intend to initiate summary proceedings against the tech giant before the District Court of Amsterdam.
Gerrit-Jan Zwenne previously faced Meta in court in a damages claim brought by the Data Privacy Foundation. ‘Big Tech pulls out all the stops with teams of highly skilled and expensive lawyers,’ the professor explains. ‘The aim seems to be to turn the case into a lengthy, costly and highly complex legal battle.’
According to Zwenne, the rapid advancement of camera technology raises a fundamental question: ‘Are we going to stop this? I’m already seeing adverts for button cameras – tiny cameras no larger than a fingernail that can be attached almost anywhere with an adhesive strip.’ The professor believes the legal action against Meta is a step in the right direction in addressing this trend: ‘Cases like this help create a shared sense that this crosses a line and is unacceptable.’
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Read the full article in NRC (€, in Dutch)