According to The New York Times, Meta is considering incorporating facial recognition technology into its smart glasses created in collaboration with Ray-Ban. Externally, these devices almost do not differ from ordinary glasses with diopters, so they look inconspicuous during use. Built-in cameras allow you to live broadcast or record photos and videos. A white-light indicator light signals that you’re taking pictures, though it can be turned off, which raises privacy concerns.
A new feature called “Name Tag ” should allow you to identify those around you and get information about them through an AI assistant. Users will be able to control the glasses with their voice-for example, to start recording or recognise objects. The problem, however, is that even people who try to avoid such technology could be exposed to it without their consent.
The overall context of data use also raises further questions. Following criticism of partnerships like Ring and Flock Safety’s handling of video sharing with law enforcement, attention to Meta’s privacy policies is only growing.
Why this could be a problem
Facial recognition technology has long been controversial. Firstly, people next to a glasses user cannot consent to the processing of their data. Secondly, the accuracy of such systems is often questioned: such projects have been known to demonstrate extremely poor performance.
In addition, these systems can be biased, vulnerable to manipulation and used for fraud or identity theft. When used by law enforcement, it can even lead to false accusations. There is also speculation that Meta could use images collected by the glasses to train its AI models, including random passersby.
Despite the risks, the company allegedly plans to roll out the feature in a “dynamic political environment.” It’s worth noting that Meta has previously rejected similar ideas-both smart glasses and Facebook-because of ethical and technical difficulties.
If the development is finalised, the new features could be available to users as early as 2026.
Meta is not the only player in this market. For example, Rokid already offers AR glasses with a display, and the company is also working with Oakley to create new models.