As reported by The New York Times, Meta intends to incorporate facial recognition functionalities into its smart glasses, which are available through the company and its collaboration with eyewear manufacturer Ray-Ban. These smart glasses, if you’re not aware, closely resemble prescription eyewear — and can even come with prescription lenses — allowing them to appear unobtrusive when worn. The frames are equipped with cameras capable of streaming video live or recording photos and videos for sharing. By default, they feature a small white light that indicates recording is in progress, alerting those nearby that they are being observed. However, there are ways to disable those lights, making them look like typical glasses.
The facial recognition capability, named “Name Tag,” will enable the users of Meta’s smart glasses to recognize individuals in their vicinity and access information using the integrated artificial intelligence assistant. While wearing the glasses, you can issue various commands to that assistant via voice, such as “Meta, start recording,” or “Meta, tell me what this picture is.” The concern, of course, is that even individuals who have reasonably attempted to protect their privacy and stay away from these systems would still be implicated, indirectly, simply through users scanning or looking into their surroundings.
In light of the recent backlash and upheaval regarding the collaboration between Ring and Flock to monitor and share security footage with law enforcement, questions arise about how Meta intends to utilize or manage data collected by users’ smart devices.
Why facial recognition technology in Meta smart glasses poses issues
In addition to the clear fact that extensive facial recognition technology constitutes a significant invasion of privacy for many, the technology itself raises doubts. Other individuals nearby the wearer of Meta smart glasses wouldn’t have the ability to give consent or opt-out. There are few cases that demonstrate facial recognition’s accuracy; in fact, quite the opposite is true. The New York transportation authority ceased a pilot program that had a 100% error rate with no accurate readings. Furthermore, the technology is biased, can be easily exploited for fraud and identity theft, is not adequately regulated, and may result in false arrests or worse when used by law enforcement. Meta might already be training AI with images from users’ smart glasses without informing anyone, potentially including individuals passing by and background subjects in captured footage who do not wish for their images to be used for such purposes.
Reportedly, Meta plans to launch the functionality in a “dynamic political environment,” and while “many civil society organizations that we would expect to criticize us will have their resources directed toward other issues,” according to internal documents. The original Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses were meant to incorporate similar facial recognition features, but the company ultimately altered its course due to ethical dilemmas, alongside technical obstacles. Meta also had a Face Recognition system in mind for Facebook to tag users’ photos, but abandoned it for similar reasons. This pattern recurs, and this latest initiative appears to be yet another instance of the same. If everything proceeds as intended, the new features will be accessible to Ray-Ban users by the end of 2026.
Meta and Ray-Ban are not the only companies developing smart glasses of this kind. Rokid provides advanced AR smart glasses with a screen, along with several other brands. Meta has also teamed up with Oakley to offer distinctive smart glasses.