‘Seeing Everything’: Meta AI Glasses Lawsuit Claims Much-Touted Privacy Protections Are a Sham

A proposed class action lawsuit accuses Meta Platforms of surreptitiously transmitting all footage captured by its AI smart glasses—including private, intimate moments—to data annotators across the world, despite the tech giant’s promise that consumers who use the product would be in control of their own data privacy.

The 39-page lawsuit, citing recent whistleblower accounts, contends that video data obtained by Meta’s AI glasses is, unbeknownst to users, viewed by data annotators in Kenya, who manually label video content to better train the defendant’s generative AI models. Central to the class action lawsuit is Meta’s extensive marketing in which it promises that the AI glasses are “designed for privacy, controlled by you,” in an apparent attempt to assure users that they will have control over their own data.

According to the complaint, the Kenya-based subcontractors tasked with manually reviewing and labeling video taken by Meta’s AI smart glasses report “seeing everything,” including people changing clothes, using the bathroom, engaging in sexual activity, handling financial information and partaking in myriad other private activities that “no reasonable consumer would ever expect a stranger to watch.” Compounding matters, the suit claims, is that Meta’s purported “face anonymization” feature for the AI smart glasses simply does not work, and that reviewers who raise concerns about the highly private nature of what they are “forced to watch” are fired.

By extensively highlighting the purported privacy protections of the Meta AI glasses, consumers were given a false sense of security and misled to believe that their glasses would not disclose any information to unauthorized parties.

“Meta chose to make privacy the centerpiece of its pervasive marketing campaign while concealing the facts that reveal those promises to be false,” the lawsuit summarizes.

Too good to be true? Lawsuit alleges Meta falsely touts data collection safety

Per the case, Meta’s AI smart glasses, which originated from a 2021 partnership between Meta and Essilor Luxottica, the parent company of Oakley and Ray-Ban, are touted as offering seamless integration with a wearer’s environment. Specifically, the filing relays that the glasses can, among other things, translate foreign text, identify objects, get directions, send messages, make phone calls, respond to auditory prompts and record continuous footage and images.

Per the complaint, these environment-enhancing features rely on the device’s internal artificial intelligence software, described as an AI assistant, that transmits data to Meta’s cloud servers to be analyzed using visual recognition and contextual data.

Unsurprisingly, many consumers have expressed apprehension about the AI smart glasses’ data-collecting capabilities. To assuage these privacy concerns, the filing says, Meta launched a massive advertising campaign based on the supposed confidentiality of the glasses, with the company promising that consumers “will have control of their own data.”

“For ordinary people, privacy is now an everyday worry,” the suit says, adding that Meta is well aware of the growing skepticism toward AI products and its “own long record of privacy failures.”

In reality, the class action lawsuit contends, users of Meta’s AI smart glasses have very limited control over what happens to their collected data, which the suit alleges is exploited by the defendant to train the AI used in its products.

AI smart glasses video is analyzed by real people in Kenya, lawsuit says

According to the complaint, data obtained by Meta from its smart glasses is not merely stored on the company’s cloud servers, but sent to a subcontractor called Sama in Nairobi, Kenya, where thousands of data annotators are tasked with labeling items in the captured footage that are then used by Meta to train its AI models. This data transmission occurs in real time, no matter where a wearer is, such as a public sidewalk, a private residence, at the gym or in a bathroom, the suit adds.

Despite Meta’s claim that key identifiable information would be removed and any faces would be automatically blurred, the lawsuit alleges that this data is not anonymous, and annotators have noted that they can see faces in recordings. According to the suit, Meta has concealed the “alarming reality” that the use of the smart glasses’ AI features would result in “a stranger halfway around the world” watching the most private moments of a person’s life.

The case highlights the “foreseeable risks” associated with the sharing of confidential or explicit video data with foreign, unauthorized parties, including harassment, blackmail or any other form of public dissemination.

“Meta failed to disclose that intimate videos, images, and audio are routinely captured by the Glasses, transmitted to Meta’s servers, and reviewed by Defendants’ employees and contractors,” the filing summarizes. “This material omission directly contradicts Meta’s affirmative privacy claims and has resulted in the exposure of consumers’ most intimate moments to thousands of strangers.”

Who is covered by the Meta AI smart glasses class action lawsuit?

The Meta smart glasses class action lawsuit seeks to represent all individuals or entities who purchased any of the following products in the United States: Ray-Ban Meta Gen 1 (Skyler), Ray-Ban Meta Gen 1 (Headliner), Ray-Ban Meta Gen 2 (Wayfarer), Ray-Ban Meta Gen 2 (Skyler), Ray-Ban Meta Gen 2 (Headliner), Oakley Meta HSTN, Oakley Meta Vanguard, and Meta Ray-Ban Display (Wayfarer).

How can I sign up for the Meta AI smart glasses lawsuit?

Typically, you don’t need to do anything to sign up for or join a class action lawsuit when it is initially filed. Should the case be resolved with a class action settlement, settlement class members will typically be notified of the deal by mail and/or email with instructions on what to do next and their options and legal rights moving forward.

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