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ICE orders ‘gadget ban’ for its employees; says: You cannot come to work wearing
TOI Tech Desk / TIMESOFINDIA.COM / Aug 19, 2026, 17:05 IST
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US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
Immigration and Customs Enforcement has told its employees to leave one particular gadget at home. In a memo issued on Tuesday, the agency barred staff from wearing Meta’s smart glasses inside the federal workspace, treating the camera-equipped eyewear as a body-worn camera rather than a normal pair of Ray-Bans. The New York Times, which first reported the memo, said it was signed by acting director David Venturella.The worry is what the glasses can do without anyone around noticing. Venturella wrote that the devices could unintentionally capture, record or transmit sensitive information, potentially compromising privacy and legal protections. The restriction is not limited to officers working raids or arrests either. It applies to every ICE employee, desk staff included. Meta declined to comment to the Times.
Why ICE is treating Meta smart glasses
like a body camera
A Department of Homeland Security spokesman told the paper that personally owned body-worn cameras and unauthorised recording have always been off limits. That framing matters. It positions the memo less as a fresh policy and more as a reminder that an old one was being ignored.The hardware explains the nervousness. Meta’s glasses carry a small camera above the frame that shoots video and audio, with a white LED that blinks while recording. Newer versions add a voice-controlled AI assistant and a tiny display tucked into the corner of one lens. Researchers have already shown the privacy LED can be worked around, which undercuts the one feature meant to warn bystanders.
Meta glasses keep showing up at immigration raids
The memo lands after months of sightings. 404 Media reported in December that a Border Patrol agent in Charlotte, North Carolina wore Ray-Ban Metas during an operation with the recording light clearly lit. An activist who shared the photos described a flower vendor spotting agents and running into nearby woods, after which officers in bucket hats followed him in. One of them had the glasses on. CBP told 404 Media it has no arrangement with Meta, which points to agents buying the glasses themselves.An investigation by The Independent counted similar sightings across at least six states. Outside federal agencies, the pushback has been building too. New York became the first state to ban the glasses from its court buildings last month, and some restaurants and stores have shown wearers the door.None of this means the government has soured on the category itself. DHS asked for $7.5 million in its April budget proposal to build a smart glasses prototype of its own, including biometric identification features. So the objection is to consumer hardware in the field, not to face-scanning eyewear in principle.Meta, meanwhile, has made the glasses a pillar of its AI strategy, with Mark Zuckerberg calling them the ideal form of superintelligence. The company has kept an unreleased facial recognition feature under wraps, though the ACLU and 77 other groups asked it in April to abandon the idea entirely.Get the latest technology news and updates. Download the TOI App.
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