Meta Quietly Added Face-Recognition Code for Smart Glasses to Millions of Phones, WIRED Analysis Finds
By
Dhruv Mehrotra, Dell Cameron
Kettled twice. Extra chewy, extra trustworthy.
Summary
Meta has quietly embedded face-recognition technology called "NameTag" into its smart glasses platform, with code already shipped to millions of phones via the Meta AI app. The feature, discovered by WIRED through code analysis, is designed to identify people captured by the glasses' camera and alert the wearer when it recognizes someone. This was done discreetly while Meta publicly described the feature as something still under development, raising privacy concerns about biometric data collection and storage on users' phones.
Key quotes
· 3 pulledMeta has quietly embedded face-recognition technology for its smart glasses into an app downloaded to millions of phones, according to a WIRED analysis of the company's software.
Code discreetly added to Meta's AI app over multiple updates this year shows that the feature, internally called 'NameTag,' identifies people captured by the glasses' camera and, when activated, alerts the wearer when it recognizes someone.
The discovery of NameTag in the live Meta AI app shows that Meta had begun shipping face-recognition code to users' phones while publicly describing it as something the company was still developing.
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