Meta AI Glasses Secretly Record Conversations, Class Action Lawsuit Alleges

New to ClassAction.org? Read our Newswire Disclaimer

A proposed class action lawsuit alleges that Meta Platforms’ AI smart glasses secretly listen to and record wearers’ private conversations without their knowledge or consent.

Get class action lawsuit and class action settlement news sent to your inbox – sign up for ClassAction.org’s free weekly newsletter.

The 13-page lawsuit contends that although the microphone, camera, and AI software in Meta AI smart glasses are designed to activate when the wearer says the trigger phrase “Hey Meta,” the glasses in fact activate without the phrase being used and surreptitiously listen to, record, and transmit private conversations without consent, in violation of the California Invasion of Privacy Act.

Citing media reports, the lawsuit says that multiple users have reported that Meta’s AI smart glasses activate and begin capturing the wearer’s conversations even in instances when the trigger phrase has not been used. Per the suit, some users have reported that the AI glasses activated randomly following a firmware update, suggesting a “likely widespread” issue.

The lawsuit accuses Meta of wiretapping users’ private conversations without affirmative consent by listening to and recording smart glasses wearers in instances when they have not used the trigger words. The suit claims that users understood that their communications were recorded only when the AI smart glasses were activated with the “Hey Meta” phrase as designed.

“Plaintiff trusted that [Meta’s AI Glasses] would operate as designed,” the filing states. “[Meta] has violated this trust and, in so doing, his privacy.”

The class action lawsuit says that the secretly recorded conversations are stored in a user’s “Voice Activity Log,” which stores data from recordings and voice interactions made with the smart glasses. Worse yet, after the AI glasses are activated, the conversation being recorded is transmitted in real time to Meta, where it can be reviewed and processed by machine learning models and human reviewers, the case says.

The Meta class action lawsuit seeks to cover all individuals in California who purchased Meta AI Glasses and had their communications recorded without using the phrase “Hey Meta.”

Check out ClassAction.org’s lawsuit list for the latest top class action lawsuits.