The Talaya Brief: Two senators give Meta until Nov. 25 to answer on glasses privacy

Two senators give Meta until Nov. 25 to answer on glasses privacy

Sens. Ron Wyden of Oregon and Edward Markey of Massachusetts sent Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg a letter dated Oct. 28 about privacy and safety risks in the company's AI glasses, VR.org reports. Meta has until Nov. 25 to send back answers and documents. The letter lists nine requests, including the internal human rights analysis Meta's 2021 Human Rights Report says came before Ray-Ban Stories, and what testing Meta ran on accidental camera activation and on tampering with the recording indicator. It is the second letter on the glasses this year, and nothing we read says Meta has replied. For background, see our guide to bystander privacy and smart glasses.

Samsung's glasses slip to December, and Gemini keeps the history

Tech Times reports that Samsung's Intelligent Eyewear is delayed to mid-December 2026 and will launch only in the US and South Korea. Every request made through the glasses routes through a paired Galaxy phone to Google Gemini, and Tech Times says Google's Gemini Apps Privacy Hub terms keep that activity for 18 months by default, or up to three years if a conversation is flagged for human review. We have not read Google's terms ourselves, and Samsung has not said what data it keeps. It also has not confirmed an exact date, a price or the frame styles. Our earlier piece covers the December launch.

Seoul trains exam staff to spot smart glasses

The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education will place dedicated staff at test sites for the 2027 College Scholastic Ability Test, Yonhap reports. The staff will get advance training on what smart glasses can do and how to detect them. Under the plan as Yonhap describes it, a student who wears smart glasses during the exam has that exam invalidated, and students who must bring them have to hand them to an invigilator before the first session. Yonhap says the wearer is suspended from the test for one year. Our earlier report, citing AFP, put the bar at three years, so the length is not settled.

Temple says its heart-rate readings beat five flagship wearables

Temple founder Deepinder Goyal said on Sunday, Nov. 1 that pre-orders for the wearable were open. According to NDTV Profit, Goyal's post on X describes an internal study that used a Polar H10 chest strap as the reference. The other devices were the Apple Watch, Garmin FR970, Fitbit Air, WHOOP MG and Oura Ring 5. Goyal says the Apple Watch Series 12 came closest and the Oura Ring 5 showed the highest error. The study is the company's own, and no independent check of it has been reported. Indian outlets list the price as Rs 85,000, and we found no US price. See how critics rated the Oura Ring 5.

Fallout: Factions is coming to Xreal Aura

Fallout: Factions, a turn-based player-versus-player tabletop game from Mirrorscape, is coming to Xreal Aura, MIXED reports. Players use hand tracking to move digital miniatures on a real table, measure distances and roll digital dice. A Steam version is listed as coming soon, with no date. MIXED says Xreal expects US shipments of Aura to begin in mid-November on a rolling basis. Our Xreal Aura guide has the hardware details.