META
Meta’s AI glasses saw way too much
Meta advertises their AI smart glasses as a hands-free assistant that will replace your phone. They're stylish, multilingual, and (at least according to the marketing) "built for your privacy."
Well, not quite.
Reportedly, contractors at Sama – a Nairobi-based data company – have been viewing footage from those glasses to train Meta’s AI systems. And these workers are seeing everything. Sensitive data, identifying information, NSFW content, and ahem bathroom breaks.
… that doesn’t sound very private.
Here's what you need to know:
Smart glasses users likely didn’t know that their footage was being watched by humans.
Meta's marketing suggested privacy was the default mode. The actual data flow was much murkier.
Meta is facing media, legal, and regulatory backlash.
The Fine Print
Apparently, Meta’s AI privacy policies around reviewing footage are buried in their supplemental terms-of-service document. A Meta spokesperson, Christopher Sgro, doubled down, saying: “Unless users choose to share media they’ve captured with Meta or others, that media stays on the user’s device.”
This is technically true, just not the whole story.
Most of the glasses' AI features – live translations, visual search, and real-time Q&As – rely on Meta’s cloud servers to process what the wearer sees and hears. When the AI features are active, footage enters a data pipeline users cannot easily opt out of… at least while those features are in use.
And the protective efforts Meta did claim to take (like blurring people’s faces) didn’t work reliably.
But hey, only seven million pairs sold. How bad could it be?
The heat is coming from all sides
Kenyan contract workers blew the whistle. Swedish journalists broke the story. The UK’s Information Commissioner's Office is inquiring about data practices. And a US-based law firm has a class-action in the works, suing Meta for privacy violations and false advertising.
The backlash is worldwide. The glasses are still on sale.
I wonder if these could help me read the terms & conditions. – TL