Crook with smart glasses extorts victim after filming without her consent and theres nothing she can do about it

It’s a case of ocular extortion.A British woman is sounding the alarm on the dangers of wearable cameras after she was allegedly filmed without her consent by a man in smart glasses — who later refused to hand over the footage without payment.The woman, using the alias Alice, told the BBC that she felt ‘humiliated’ by the video.When she contacted the man to request that he take down the post, he explained he would only do so as a “paid service.”The man initially approached Alice as she was walking into a London shopping center.

“I just thought ‘OK, this guy is just trying to talk to me, to chat me up’,” she recalled, noting that she hoped the man would leave her alone, but he continued to follow her, asking for her Instagram information.She maintains that she had no idea she was being filmed and did not consent to being recorded.“He had no phone, he did not have a camera directly in my face,” she said.Later, a friend sent her the video of her that the man had posted on social media.“My initial reaction was complete shock,” she said.To date, the video has been viewed roughly 40,000 times.The man is among a growing number of aspiring influencers who are using smart glasses to turn real-life encounters into content.The videos follow a familiar script — a compliment, a pickup line, a push for a name or number — with the footage later blasted across social media for views, often without the subject ever realizing she was on camera.Alice immediately contacted the account responsible for the post, requesting that it be removed.

The man responded via email, claiming he is not required to take down the post and writing, “I understand that sometimes people may still prefer for certain content to be removed.In such cases, I usually offer removal as a paid service…If you’d like me to move forward with this, let me know, and we can discuss the terms.”To Alice, the response felt like extortion.“It made me feel completely exploited and...