With Meta reportedly planning to release a new model of AI wearables
with no
camera, the tech giant is facing a handful of lawsuits from users alleging that their Meta smart glasses captured intimate or sensitive footage of them and exposed it to paid-content reviewers
abroad.
According to The Los Angeles Times,
over 70 people who used Meta’s smart glasses are suing the company for deceptively capturing footage of themselves and family members “undressing, going to the bathroom, having sex and
entering passwords.”
Some of the users involved in the lawsuit claim they were unaware that the smart glasses were recording them.
The lawsuit, filed in a federal court in
Northern California, also accuses Meta of fraud and false advertising, while also violating consumer protection laws across multiple U.S. states.
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“People who bought these glasses and
thought that they were cool gadgets weren’t aware that every time they activated AI, video was sent to train Meta’s AI,” said Tina Wolfson, a lawyer representing the plaintiffs.
In response, a Meta spokesperson said that the company “may review” consumers’ experience using Meta AI in order to “help improve our products,” but that steps are
taken to filter user data to “help remove identifying information and to protect people’s privacy.”
Meta plans to fight the allegations.
“Every activation of
the AI features, intentional or accidental, captures video and audio that is transmitted to Meta's servers, routed overseas, and reviewed by low-paid human workers who watch, label, and embed these
moments into Meta's AI models,” the lawsuit reads, referencing a prior
investigation regarding Kenyan content moderators.
In February, Swedish newspapers reported that Kenyan workers employed by a Meta subcontractor saw “someone going to the toilet, or
getting undressed” on users' smart glasses recordings. Other workers described video material depicting sexual encounters and other intimate moments that smart glasses users did not seem to know
they were recording.
The investigation led to further investigation from the Information Commissioner's Office, a U.K. regulator, resulting in a lawsuit filed on behalf of plaintiffs from New
Jersey and California alleging that Meta understands general consumer concern around AI privacy violations and misleadingly marketed its new line of AI smart glasses as privacy-safe via the slogan,
“designed for privacy, controlled by you.”
Despite selling over 7 million pairs of Ray-Ban smart glasses last year and expanding across other EssilorLuxottica-owned brands,
Meta’s most recent AI glasses have encountered a global backlash, and
have been called “creep glasses” and “pervert glasses”
because of their ability for users to secretly record others.
Earlier this month, His Majesty's Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS), which resides over the courts in England and Wales, said
that Meta glasses would be confiscated from people entering its judicial
buildings. New York also banned Meta glasses in
courthouses.
Meta and EssilorLuxottica are facing a separate class action
lawsuit over allegations that both companies “captured, stored, and transmitted user' private audiovisual data through the companies' AI-enabled ‘Meta AI Glasses’ without
disclosure or owners' consent.”
In response to the backlash, Meta has worked to disable recording functionality for thousands of users who were found to have tampered with the LED light
designed to let others know they are being recorded.
The company also deleted a “NameTag” face-recognition feature from the Meta AI app following an investigative report from Wired.
Now, Meta is reportedly scrapping the ability to record and take photos all
together from its newest AI-powered glasses model, expected to be unveiled at the company’s Connect developer conference on Sept. 23 and Sept. 24.