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Key takeaways

• Meta workers reportedly viewed sensitive Ray-Ban glasses videos.
  
• Videos included undressing and going to the bathroom.
  
• Often, wearers didn't know the glasses were recording.
  

Many Meta Ray-Ban users wear their smart glasses everywhere. They enjoy having AI at their beck and call, getting notifications without pulling out a phone, and recording whatever they see. 

However, they might not imagine someone else watching the videos captured by these smart glasses, including videos they've accidentally recorded; videos, for example, that contain private bank information or someone undressing.

Meta contractors in Nairobi, Kenya, had access to sensitive and private videos that were recorded with Meta smart glasses around the world, according to a recent investigation. The videos included footage of people going to the bathroom, undressing, viewing sensitive financial information, and engaging in intimate moments. 

Some of the workers said they believed the majority of the sensitive videos were made when the wearers didn't know the smart glasses were recording. 

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The videos were reportedly viewed by contractors from Sama, a company Meta hired for AI development, as part of their assigned work. Human reviewers watch Meta Smart Glasses videos and label the objects in them. The data is later used to train Meta's AI to recognize those objects. The investigation, conducted by Swedish newspapers Svenska Dagbladet (SvD) and Goteborgs-Posten (GP), concluded that the workers were unaware they'd see sensitive videos among the captured data.

Like the defunct Google Glass, Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses are notorious for their privacy red flags. Unlike Google, Meta sold seven million units of its Ray-Ban smart glasses just last year, double the amount of the year before. The device's popularity continues to grow at a time when many people have adjusted to a world of ever-present devices. 

The entire category of AI smart glasses fuels the debate about normalizing constant surveillance in everyday life, from unintentional recording of bystanders to AI analyzing faces and surroundings. This poses a risk to privacy and personal security, especially in cases where people may be victims of abuse.

Some private companies are already banning the use of smart glasses at work to prevent covert recording, and European lawmakers and agencies, such as the UK's Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), are questioning regulators and Meta about whether these glasses violate privacy legislation.

Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Privacy implications

While smart glasses aren't inherently negative, it's important to keep in mind the very real possibility that people can use them, intentionally or accidentally, to record others without their consent. In a case from October, a man used Meta smart glasses to record interactions with women at the University of San Francisco, highlighting privacy concerns.

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Recording videos with smart glasses is convenient, fun, and useful for content creators. However, do smart glasses belong in certain settings -- such as healthcare -- where stricter privacy concerns are in play? There's also the matter of wiretapping laws, especially in states where all parties must consent to audio recording. 

These open questions illustrate the challenge of regulating a burgeoning technology in real time. 

In addition, these videos may be viewed by others anywhere in the world, if Meta's contracting practices are any indication. The problem isn't only Meta -- but Meta is the biggest name in this product category.

Reading the fine print

Using recordings to train AI systems isn't all that common, said Melissa Ruzzi, director of AI at AppOmni, an AI security company. She said companies typically disclose this to users in terms of service.

"The problem is that users in general do not read the user privacy and data usage settings, and just click accept," Ruzzi told . 

According to Meta's terms of service, the company reserves the right to share user data from Meta AI and wearable devices, such as the Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses, with moderators for review. 

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"There are always risks regarding privacy, identity theft, and targeted phishing when data gets used because the AI may expose it again," Ruzzi added. "This is why it is so important to read and understand the terms and conditions before clicking accept when you start using AI."

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