Meta Urged to Abandon Facial Recognition Plans for Ray-Ban Glasses
More than 70 advocacy organizations are calling on Meta to halt reported plans to introduce facial recognition technology into its Ray-Ban smart glasses, warning of serious risks to privacy and public safety.
According to a report by The New York Times, an internal company memo suggests Meta is preparing to add facial recognition technology to its range of smart glasses.
The feature, reportedly known inside the company as “Name Tag,” would allow wearers to identify people in their field of view and access information about them through Meta’s AI assistant. Engineers have supposedly considered two versions of the tool: one that would recognize only individuals already connected to the user on Meta platforms, and another that could identify anyone with a public account on social media services such as Instagram.
According to a report by Wired, more than 70 organizations spanning civil liberties, domestic violence prevention, reproductive rights, LGBTQ+, labor, and immigrant advocacy are urging Meta to abandon plans to add facial recognition to its Ray-Ban and Oakley smart glasses.
‘A Red Line Society Must Not Cross’
The coalition — which includes the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the Electronic Privacy Information Center, Fight for the Future, Access Now, and the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights — says the technology could allow stalkers, abusers, and federal agents to identify strangers in public without their knowledge.
“Meta’s reported plans to introduce this technology into broadly available consumer products is a red line society must not cross,” the 75 local, state, and national organizations write in the letter to the company’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg. “Preventing this outcome is not just a privacy preference. It is a prerequisite for a free and safe society. Meta should not proceed with this product release.”
The groups say glasses equipped with facial recognition could enable users to identify individuals at protests, medical clinics, and businesses, and then connect those identities to online databases containing personal information such as employment, habits, health, and relationships. They argue that Meta cannot be trusted to safely use such technology and are calling on the company to abandon the plans entirely.
“The American people have not consented to this massive invasion of privacy,” said Kade Crockford, director of technology and justice programs at the ACLU of Massachusetts, in a statement. “Stalkers and scammers would have a field day with this technology. Federal agents could use it to harass and intimidate their critics.”
Image credits: Header photo licensed via Depositphotos.
