Today’s big topic: Synoptik and Profil Optik sell the ‘harassment glasses,’ while other opticians say no
What’s happening?
Customers are voicing their anger and outrage that the optician chain Synoptik has chosen to market tech giant Meta’s AI glasses, which can covertly film and monitor unsuspecting people in public and private spaces.
Sales walls labeled ’AI Glasses’ and ’AI Wear’ are among the first things that meet customers’ eyes in Synoptik stores. The chain also ran a major digital marketing campaign with influencers and fashion magazines that was scrapped last week after public criticism.
Several customers write on Trustpilot that they will no longer shop at Synoptik because of the chain’s moral compass.
»It is completely unacceptable that Synoptik has chosen to be the driving force behind a potentially harmful social development by offering Meta’s disgusting stalker glasses to its customers. At the same time, it must be emphasized that Synoptik has actively chosen to support a company that has been found guilty of harming children and young people. Ugh!«, one customer writes.
Why it matters!
The new product category in the optical market has run into stiff headwinds after a long series of examples at home and abroad of the glasses being used to make covert recordings of random people.
Using the AI glasses continuously collects valuable data for the tech giant about people, objects, and surroundings, to further develop its AI models.
The tech publication Wired reported in June that millions of glasses which had already been sold also quietly contained a dormant feature called ’NameTag’. It is code that, once activated through the glasses’ discreet camera, can identify people in real time.
»The feature is not yet exposed to consumers but seems nearly ready to go. Despite the billions of reasons not to, Meta seems to have created the capacity to turn their customers into a distributed surveillance machine
The feature is not yet available to consumers, but it seems nearly ready to be rolled out. Despite billions of reasons not to, Meta appears to have created the capacity to turn customers into a distributed surveillance machine«, security expert Cooper Quintin told Wired.
Still curious? Read the full article here.
In other news
– The government was looking for a fresh start after the first messy scandals
Wednesday’s press conference with the government leaders had been staged in advance so that each party leader had about five minutes to point to the most important policy areas – through that leader’s own lens. Because even though the four government parties may be painting on the same canvas, it was clear they’re each using a different brush.
Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen (Socialdemokratiet, S) got things rolling with immigration policy: »It’s strict«, she said flatly, while also stressing the importance of setting up a departure center outside the European Union.
Read the full article and find out what the other three party leaders gave particular attention to here.
– There is no longer nearly as much momentum in Copenhagen’s housing market as there used to be.
In July, 407 owner-occupied apartments were sold in the City of Copenhagen, markedly fewer than both the month before and July 2025. That is shown by figures from Boligsiden. This amounts to a drop in the number of apartment transactions in the City of Copenhagen of 24 percent from June to July and 40 percent from July 2025 to July this year.
When activity rises significantly above that level, the housing economist says, it has typically been accompanied by sharp price increases. Conversely, prices have generally fallen when the number of transactions dips below 400. »With 407 transactions in July, Copenhagen’s owner-occupied apartment market is therefore balancing very close to the level where history begins to flash red«, Lise Nytoft Bergmann writes in a comment.
– Courtroom 001 became the stage for a clash between two party leaders in a lawsuit with potentially far-reaching consequences for political debate
Morten Messerschmidt had hauled Martin Lidegaard into court – suing the radikale Venstre’s political leader. But Lidegaard had brought along, for his defense, a Rottweiler of a lawyer, who on Tuesday went on the offensive against Messerschmidt in front of the assembled press in courtroom 001. Lidegaard watched without expression as his lawyer, René Offersen, tore into Messerschmidt for having brought »the most unnecessary case«, as Offersen called the one-day trial.
On Tuesday, courtroom 001 turned into an arena where a panel of judges, quite unaccustomed to the role, became front-row spectators to two party leaders eager to lay out their respective politics – because Messerschmidt, in a dramatic move that several news outlets have described as »historic«, had brought the two MPs’ war of words into the courtroom to have impartial arbiters settle the matter.
The verdict will be delivered on Oct. 16.
Talk of town: When young people leave grade school, something suddenly shifts dramatically in their thirst
Young people drink and party during the annual Puttefester in Dyrehaven.
As the school year kicked off last week, the debate concerning the party and drinking culture among young Danes also flared up again. Most specifically, it centers around the so-called ’puttefester’. These are the parties held to celebrate the new students in upper secondary school, typically 15-17 years old, and the parties usually take place outside of the school, with the largest one in the Copenhagen area being in Dyrehaven.
According to a report released earlier this year, 15- to 17-year-olds now drink more than 18- to 24-year-olds. The average weekly alcohol intake among 15- to 17-year-olds has fallen only from 10.0 to 9.4 drinks in the 2022-2025 period, the report says. For those slightly older, intake has dropped from 10.2 to 8.6 drinks.
According to Janne Tolstrup, a professor at the National Institute of Public Health who researches drinking culture and is a co-author of the report, the very youngest group’s consumption is largely tied to the start of upper-secondary education.
»Alcohol intake among grade school students has been going down for a long time, but when young people start upper-secondary education, there’s a big jump in how much they drink«, she says.
Read the full story here.
This newsletter features stories originally published in Danish. AI was used to shorten and translate the articles into English, after which a member of the editorial staff reviewed and refined the content.