Rokid Cracks Down on AR Glasses Community After Users Post Covert Footage of Flight Attendants

Chinese AR glasses maker Rokid is overhauling its platform and pushing to crack down on accessories designed to hide recording indicators – after users were caught sharing covert footage of flight attendants and strangers in its app community.

The crackdown came after a Shanghai woman surnamed Yun discovered posts in the Rokid AI app showing a user recording Spring Airlines cabin crew while boarding, including photos and a video of in-flight service, Xiaoxiang Morning Herald reported.

The company issued a statement on June 8 after media reports and public discussion focused on user-shared first-person content in the Rokid AI community and accessories sold online that could be used to cover recording indicator lights.

Rokid said it had upgraded its community review algorithms and was pushing e-commerce platforms to remove and trace the origin of "light-blocking stickers" that allow users to cover recording indicators.

The Hangzhou-based company said its current products are equipped with hardware-level indicator lights that must activate during recording, along with obstruction-detection algorithms, and that third parties cannot alter indicator-light permissions at the system level. Future products would further strengthen both hardware and software protections, it said.

Yun, who said she used smart glasses mainly for translation and meeting notes, told the outlet she was concerned that some users could misuse a convenient product by disguising it as ordinary eyewear, especially if they bought accessories to hide recording indicators.

The Hangzhou-based company, founded in 2014, describes itself as a human-computer interaction technology platform focused on AR glasses, hardware and software products, and the YodaOS operating system ecosystem.

Under Chinese law, filming individuals without consent and distributing the footage can constitute a violation of portrait and personal information rights under the Civil Code, though legal boundaries around wearable cameras are largely untested.