A British woman is warning others about the misuse of smart glasses after a man secretly filmed her in a London shopping center, only to be told that she’d have to pay if she wanted the video taken down.
The woman, speaking under the alias Alice, told the BBC that the man approached her near the entrance and began chatting her up. He asked for her Instagram handle, all while she noticed he had no phone in his hand and no visible camera.
She only realized she had been filmed when a friend later sent her the clip, which had already been posted online. Alice said her reaction was one of shock when she first saw the video, which has since been viewed roughly 40,000 times.
She emailed the account asking for it to come down. The man wrote back saying he didn’t have to remove it, but offered to as a “paid service.” Alice called it extortion and refused to pay.
She went to the police. They opened a report but, in her words, were “unable to progress the investigation due to limited information.” The file still exists, and she checks social media regularly to see if it’s getting reposted somewhere new.
TikTok did eventually pull the clip and ban the account for breaking its harassment rules. The man ended up reposting it on another platform.
The glasses doing the filming
The device in question is the kind of smart eyewear now sold by Meta (in partnership with Ray-Ban) and other manufacturers, featuring a small but powerful 12-megapixel ultra-wide camera discreetly embedded in the upper corner of the frame.
Capable of recording sharp 3K video, the glasses look virtually identical to ordinary eyewear, which is part of their appeal for everyday users and part of the problem when it comes to privacy. A small LED indicator is meant to signal when recording is active, but it can be subtle in bright light, difficult to notice, or even covered by users seeking complete discretion.
A growing genre of content
Similar incidents have become increasingly common across the UK and elsewhere, as per BBC investigations. An earlier report detailed the case of Oonagh, who was secretly filmed on a beach in Brighton by a man using smart glasses; that video received around a million views.
These clips tend to follow the same beat. A man walks up to a woman in public settings such as shopping centers, city streets, and nightlife areas, throws out a compliment, pushes for a name or a number, films the whole thing through his glasses, and uploads it for views. The woman usually has no idea that any of it is being recorded.
Critics have started calling the devices “pervert glasses.” The man behind Alice’s video reportedly runs accounts on YouTube, Instagram, and Threads, all with similar material.
Sources: NYP, BBC News (May 7), Meta, BBC (January 2026)