In brief
- DuckDuckGo has released a pair of “Normal F***ing Sunglasses” that carry no camera, no microphone, no battery and no electronics of any kind.
- The glasses, made with eyewear brand Knockabout, sold out in less than a week, with a second run coming.
- The launch comes after Meta’s smart glasses have faced an online backlash over privacy concerns.
DuckDuckGo has sold out of a pair of sunglasses whose entire selling point is the absence of technology, with the first production run clearing in under a week.
The Normal F***ing Sunglasses went on sale on July 30 at $35, made with San Diego eyewear brand Knockaround. Its product page now carries a note confirming the run sold out and opening pre-orders for a second batch. DuckDuckGo told TechSpot that a significant share of inventory had gone, but that it was too early to give full figures.
Built on Knockaround's Paso Robles frame in matte black with a blackout finish, the glasses carry polarized lenses with UV400 protection, FDA-compliant impact resistance and a debossed hard case. The listing is blunter about what has been left out: "No camera, no microphone, no AI, no battery, no electronics of any kind."
Unsurprisingly, the glasses boast an infinite charge life and "seamless offline mode," shipping with "zero notifications guaranteed" and 0% surveillance risk.
Meta's year of bad headlines
DuckDuckGo’s joke product makes a serious point, taking aim at camera-equipped “smart glasses” from tech giants like Meta and Google.
In a tweet on launch day, the brand enlisted tech journalist Tatum Hunter, who commented that “examples of people using smart glasses in unethical and frightening ways keep piling up,” citing examples of harassment, inappropriate use and privacy concerns.
Yes, we made our own (camera-free) wearable. But there’s a deeper reason we think camera-enabled glasses deserve serious pushback.
Meta and Google smart glasses open the door to a host of frightening privacy problems. Hands-free recording isn’t worth the risks to our safety and… pic.twitter.com/bU32f7hcKY
— DuckDuckGo (@DuckDuckGo) July 30, 2026
Meta's Ray-Ban glasses have drawn particular ire online, with a growing cohort dismissing them as “pervert glasses.” A BBC investigation in January found women were being covertly filmed and the clips posted to TikTok, and Swedish reporting in February found contractors training Meta's AI had reviewed footage of people undressing and using bathrooms. A class action lawsuit followed in March, the ACLU and 75 other groups called adding facial recognition "a red line society must not cross" in April, and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton opened an investigation into the technology in May. DEF CON and Comic Con organiser Monopoly Events have both banned the devices.
DuckDuckGo has spent the past year positioning itself against the tech industry's AI defaults. It polled its own users on whether they wanted AI results folded into search, roughly nine in ten said no, and generative AI now sits on a separate opt-in page rather than in the main results.
Selling the absence of AI has become a reliable line of business for DuckDuckGo. Traffic to its no-AI search page tripled after Google rebuilt search around AI answers in May and has run 84% above baseline since, prompting the company to ship No-AI extensions for Chrome and Firefox.
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