--- title: Meta smart glasses banned from courts across England and... description: His Majesty's Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) has banned Meta smart glasses from all court buildings in England and Wales, requiring confiscation on entry.... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/meta-smart-glasses-banned-from-courts-across-england-and-wales-xv9dn3idz twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Meta smart glasses banned from courts across England and Wales | daily.dev og:description: His Majesty's Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) has banned Meta smart glasses from all court buildings in England and Wales, requiring confiscation on entry.... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/meta-smart-glasses-banned-from-courts-across-england-and-wales-xv9dn3idz og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/Xv9dN3idz.png og:image:alt: Meta smart glasses banned from courts across England and Wales og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Meta smart glasses banned from courts across England and Wales **[The Next Web](https://daily.dev/sources/tnw)** · 4 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary His Majesty's Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) has banned Meta smart glasses from all court buildings in England and Wales, requiring confiscation on entry. The ban follows similar action by New York courts and a wave of venue bans at restaurants, theatres, and pubs. The core issue is that Meta's Ray-Ban glasses can record discreetly — unlike smartphones, which are conspicuous when raised to film — making them incompatible with existing laws against recording in court. A specific incident involving a claimant allegedly being coached through smart glasses during High Court testimony accelerated the policy. With Meta having sold roughly seven million pairs priced between £269 and £469, the glasses are now common enough to be a genuine operational concern. Meta points to a pulsing LED indicator and tamper-detection as safeguards, but courts have opted for outright removal rather than trusting a small light to enforce contempt-of-court law. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### How many Meta smart glasses were sold and what do they cost? Meta sold roughly seven million pairs of smart glasses in a single year, priced between £269 and £469. That volume makes them a genuinely common consumer object rather than a niche gadget, which is part of why institutions like courts are treating them as a serious operational concern rather than an edge case. _Developers building for wearable platforms track adoption numbers and policy shifts like these on daily.dev._ ### Why are Meta smart glasses banned in courts when smartphones are allowed? Smartphones are permitted in UK courts as long as nobody uses them to record — a compromise that works because raising a phone to film is conspicuous. Meta's glasses capture images and video while sitting quietly on the wearer's face, making covert recording indistinguishable from simply wearing eyewear. That discretion, the product's core appeal, is precisely what makes it incompatible with court recording rules. _Those working on privacy-sensitive hardware or policy-adjacent tech follow rulings like this on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Smart glasses privacy reckoning: NY ban meets Meta's fix](https://daily.dev/posts/smart-glasses-privacy-reckoning-ny-ban-meets-meta-s-fix-jq3cxpddd) · The Next Web · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Cinemas, schools and ICE are all banning Meta smart glasses](https://daily.dev/posts/cinemas-schools-and-ice-are-all-banning-meta-smart-glasses-fmndj0j4z) · The Next Web · 1 upvotes · 1 comments - [Smart glasses are already causing havoc in India](https://daily.dev/posts/smart-glasses-are-already-causing-havoc-in-india-xb8lt9rza) · MIT Technology Review · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [We laughed off the ‘glassholes’ – this time it’s serious](https://daily.dev/posts/we-laughed-off-the-glassholes-this-time-it-s-serious-ptybxcvx1) · TechCentral · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Meta smart glasses face UK privacy probe](https://daily.dev/posts/meta-smart-glasses-face-uk-privacy-probe-ijgbry3vw) · The Register · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#privacy](https://daily.dev/tags/privacy) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/meta-smart-glasses-banned-from-courts-across-england-and-wales-xv9dn3idz) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Meta smart glasses banned from courts across England and Wales","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/meta-smart-glasses-banned-from-courts-across-england-and-wales-xv9dn3idz","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/meta-smart-glasses-banned-from-courts-across-england-and-wales-xv9dn3idz"},"datePublished":"2026-08-11T13:59:54.890Z","dateModified":"2026-08-11T14:00:19.978Z","description":"His Majesty's Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) has banned Meta smart glasses from all court buildings in England and Wales, requiring confiscation on entry....","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/eb945644fd381e08e580af6299cb4beb?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/eb945644fd381e08e580af6299cb4beb?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"The Next Web","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"The Next Web","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/tnw","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/tnw"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/meta-smart-glasses-banned-from-courts-across-england-and-wales-xv9dn3idz","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"privacy","timeRequired":"PT4M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Next Web","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/tnw"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Meta smart glasses banned from courts across England and Wales"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/meta-smart-glasses-banned-from-courts-across-england-and-wales-xv9dn3idz#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"How many Meta smart glasses were sold and what do they cost?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Meta sold roughly seven million pairs of smart glasses in a single year, priced between £269 and £469. 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