They are without a doubt the most iconic sunglasses in the world. They are a cliche symbol representation of cool, and yet, somehow still cool. They are decades old, and have been popularized by cartoonishly suave celebs, from Muhammad Ali, to James Dean, to Bruce Willis.
They are the Ray-Ban Wayfarers, and now, thanks to Facebook, they come with terms of service.
Videos by VICE
According to Buzzfeed, Ray-Ban Stories, as they’re called, come with a terms of service, which means that the end of ownership has now come for fashion accessories and clothing, in addition to coffee makers, refrigerators, ebooks, tractors, etc.
Reporter Katie Notopoulos wrote that she covered a light that shows others that you’re recording them with a black piece of tape, which Facebook told her is a terms of service violation.
Much like the Snapchat Spectacles, Ray-Ban Stories allow users to capture videos and photographs with a click of a button. These images are sent to an App called View, which requires a Facebook account, and from which users can share them wherever they like, including Facebook and Instagram.
Much like the Snapchat Spectacles, Ray-Ban Stories are an evolution of Google Glass, a widely despised and failed product from Google, which made people uncomfortable because they didn’t like the idea that they could be secretly recorded by them. The light on the Ray-Ban Stories which Facebook’s terms of service forbid users from covering up aims to solve that problem.
How Facebook intends to enforce what it believes to be privacy-protecting features on a pair of sunglasses that can be thwarted with a piece of tape remains to be seen, but the mere concept of trying to control how people modify their sunglasses is almost as laughable as the glasses themselves.
