Secret recordings with smart glasses: A new fear for Flinta*

T he couple looked casual. Her: short haircut, baggy suit pants, Pashanim shirt, pink flip-flops. Him: sweatpants, white long-sleeve shirt, Friday bag, and surprisingly ugly sunglasses. “Run!” I wanted to shout to her when I realized what her boyfriend was wearing: smart glasses.

Anyone who wears smart glasses as a man not only finds Mark Zuckerberg and the latest Silicon Valley shit a bit too cool, but is also ignorant. He doesn't put himself in the reality of life in Flinta*, which is characterized by constant threat.

Research by the Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) revealed last week how systematically Flinta* was secretly filmed up her skirt at the Oktoberfest. Accordingly, there are more than 32,000 videos of Flinta* circulating on Meta Group platforms alone, which have become victims of so-called upskirting. According to SZ, there are also thousands more clips on YouTube and Tiktok.

A few weeks ago I was lying on the Isar in Munich when a man secretly took photos of me and other women for hours: close-ups of our bare breasts, buttocks, vulvas. When we discovered him, we yelled at him and deleted the almost 50 pictures. He thought our reaction was grossly exaggerated, we should calm down, he said, and, well: “Maybe it wasn’t quite the fine English way.”

Police later said there was nothing they could do. The fact that he secretly took the most intimate photos for hours is legal. It only becomes relevant under criminal law when it is too late: when the images have already been uploaded to the Internet.

A few days later I'm on holiday by the sea. I only see men and cell phone cameras everywhere. I don't dare take off my bikini top and I'm annoyed about giving the man power over me. When I told a friend about it in the evening, she talked about her beach experience the week before. How a man came to her and asked if he could paint her feet; how she said no and went into the water; how he followed her and swam closer and closer to her as she played the “dead man” act; how he suddenly grabbed her foot with both hands and tried to bite it; how she screamed, kicked him in the face and swam ashore in a panic.

The year before, on the same beach, a man squatted naked in front of her friend's head as she read her book and tried to make small talk while his penis dangled inches from her head, she said.

The philosopher Ann J. Cahill describes Flinta* as a “pre-victim” in our society. We are constantly confronted with the threat of becoming victims of sexual abuse. When tech bros develop tools like smart glasses to make it easier for other men to secretly film, this already omnipresent fear is heightened. Through collaborations, stars like Kylie Jenner are helping to sell this surveillance technology as a lifestyle accessory and normalize the dangers associated with it.

Social media is currently booming with videos of self-proclaimed dating coaches and pickup artists hitting on women on lakes and beaches, secretly filming them and giving each other tips on how to cover up the flashing LED light on the camera. Of course, Zuckerberg and Co. made sure that the LEDs are barely visible anyway. According to a new Civey survey commissioned by HateAid, 61 percent of respondents do not recognize the LED as an indication of an ongoing recording. Nevertheless, specially made stickers are sold online that cover the LED light on the glasses in order to - yes, what?

Of course, not all men who wear smart glasses secretly take photos of Flinta*. Just like #allMen doesn't mean that all men rape. “But all participate in rituals, affirm values, and value behaviors that contribute to the possibility of normal men going out and raping an unconscious woman,” writes philosopher Manon Garcia in the book “Living with Men: Reflections on the Pelicot Trial.”

Men who use smart glasses as a harmless tech gadget also contribute to Flinta* feeling even more insecure and suspecting a potential perpetrator behind every pair of sunglasses. Solidarity means being interested in the realities of others and standing up for them politically. If you want to be “Ally,” you sometimes have to make sacrifices: your toys are dispensable, but our safety is not.