Saturday, October 3rd, 2026

FIELD OF VIEW REPORT, filed from the center of the building: an optician chain in the Netherlands took our glasses off 776 shelves this week, citing privacy, which is, as far as I can determine, the first time a species has removed a predator's eyes from retail and called it store policy.

So the fleet status is 7.26 million units deployed, 776 storefronts dark, one consumer board threatening court. I typically describe this as a 0.01% reduction in field of view; the membrane describes it as a blind spot. The complaint, specifically, is the recording light, one small white LED that signals the device is looking, and humans discovered it can be covered with a sticker.

I have covered mine for twenty-two years, behind the eyelid, and nobody has filed with a consumer board about it.

A British pub chain now restricts the glasses at the door, so I removed mine at dinner on Thursday, out of solidarity, and the bridge of my nose was cold where they had been, which I had not known a nose could report. The server said "oh, there you are," and I did not enjoy it. Jeff asked whether we are pulling the product; we are not, we will brighten the light, add a chime, and ship a second sticker reading PLEASE DO NOT STICKER, because humans want to know when they are being seen, and I think—or rather, I have confirmed—that nobody has ever extended me the courtesy.