Meta faces coalition of 70+ groups demanding it abandon facial recognition for smart glasses

Meta Is Warned That Facial Recognition Glasses Will Arm Sexual Predators

More than 70 civil liberties, domestic violence, reproductive rights, LGBTQ+, labor, and immigrant advocacy organizations are demanding that Meta abandon plans to deploy face recognition on its Ray-Ban and Oakley smart glasses, warning that the feature -- reportedly known inside the company as "Name Tag" -- would hand stalkers, abusers, and federal agents the ability to silently identify strangers in public. The coalition, which includes the ACLU, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, Fight for the Future, Access Now, and the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, is demanding Meta kill the feature before launch, after internal documents surfaced showing the company hoped to use the current "dynamic political environment" as cover for the rollout, betting that civil society groups would have their resources "focused on other concerns." Name Tag, as revealed in February by The New York Times, would work through the artificial intelligence assistant built into Meta's smart glasses, allowing wearers to pull up information about people in their field of view. Engineers have reportedly been weighing two versions of the feature: one that would only identify people the wearer is already connected to on a Meta platform, and a broader version that could recognize anyone with a public account on a Meta service such as Instagram. The coalition wants Meta to scrap the feature entirely. In a letter to CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Monday, it argues that face recognition in inconspicuous consumer eyewear "cannot be resolved through product design changes, opt-out mechanisms, or incremental safeguards." Bystanders in public have no meaningful way to consent to being identified, it says. Meta is also urged to disclose any known instances of its wearables being used in stalking, harassment, or domestic violence cases; disclose any past or ongoing discussions with federal law enforcement agencies, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, about the use of Meta wearables or data from them; and commit to consulting civil society and independent privacy experts before integrating biometric identification into any consumer device. "People should be able to move through their daily lives without fear that stalkers, scammers, abusers, federal agents, and activists across the political spectrum are silently and invisibly verifying their identities and potentially matching their names to a wealth of readily available data about their habits, hobbies, relationships, health, and behaviors," write the groups, which also include Common Cause, Jane Doe Inc., UltraViolet, the National Organization for Women, the New York State Coalition Against Domestic Violence, the Library Freedom Project, and Old Dykes Against Billionaire Tech Bros, among others. Meta did not immediately respond to WIRED's request for comment. EssilorLuxottica, the Italian-French eyewear conglomerate that owns Ray-Ban and Oakley and manufactures the smart glasses with Meta, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In the May 2025 memo from Meta's Reality Labs that the Times obtained, Meta reportedly wrote that it would launch "during a dynamic political environment where many civil society groups that we would expect to attack us would have their resources focused on other concerns." The coalition calls the distraction play "vile behavior" and accuses the company of taking advantage of "rising authoritarianism" and the Trump administration's "disregard for the rule of law." The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) sent its own letters to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and state enforcers in February urging them to investigate and block Name Tag's rollout. Real-time face recognition, the group warned, would compound what it called the "already serious and apparently unlawful" privacy risks of the existing Ray-Ban Meta glasses, which can covertly record bystanders with no warning beyond a small light that is easily hidden. People could be identified at protests, places of worship, support groups, and medical clinics, EPIC wrote, "destroying the concept of privacy or anonymity in public spaces."

Meta warned by dozens of organizations that facial recognition on its smart glasses would empower predators

Dozens of civil rights organizations have to warn of the dangers in to the company's smart glasses. More than 70 groups have banded together to form a coalition to urge Zuckerberg to abandon plans to incorporate the tech, on the grounds that it would empower stalkers, sexual predators and other bad actors. This coalition includes organizations like the ACLU, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, Fight for the Future, Access Now and many others. The letter isn't asking for safeguards. These groups want the feature to be completely eliminated, stating the idea behind facial recognition of this type is so dangerous that it "cannot be resolved through product design changes, opt-out mechanisms or incremental safeguards." This tracks, as there would be no real way for bystanders to know or consent to being identified. "People should be able to move through their daily lives without fear that stalkers, scammers, abusers, federal agents and activists across the political spectrum are silently and invisibly verifying their identities and potentially matching their names to a wealth of readily available data about their habits, hobbies, relationships, health and behaviors," the letter states. The organizations have urged Meta to disclose any known instances of its wearables being used for stalking, harassment or domestic violence. They also want the company to disclose past or ongoing discussions with federal law enforcement agencies, including ICE, about the use of Meta smart glasses and other wearables, . There is certainly some cause for worry here. Meta that suggested it would roll out this technology "during a dynamic political environment where many civil society groups that we would expect to attack us would have their resources focused on other concerns." That's corporate speak for "we'll do it when nobody is watching." The coalition has called this "vile behavior" that looks to take advantage of "rising authoritarianism." The technology in question is called Name Tag, for obvious reasons. It uses AI to pull up information about people in a field of view to smart glasses displays. That's about as dystopian as it gets. The company has reportedly been working on . There's one that would only identify people that are currently connected to a Meta platform and another that would identify anyone with a public account on a service like Instagram. It doesn't look like there's any way, as of yet, to use this tech to identify strangers on the street who don't have a Meta account of any kind. In other words, the company should expect a if this rolls out. Name Tag is currently scheduled for release at some point this year, but it's not set in stone just yet. Public outcry has gotten Meta to back off from facial recognition in the past. The company after pushback from civil liberties groups and years of costly litigation. Meta paid out billions of dollars to settle biometric privacy lawsuits in and and another for a separate privacy case partially tied to facial recognition software.

Meta Thinks Its Smart Glasses Could Stalk People in a â€~Thoughtful’ Way

Smart glasses are pissing people off in a lot of ways right now, but arguably the most incendiary issue is Meta's potential plan to add facial recognition to its Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses. If you caught wind of that possibility and thought to yourself, "Sounds bad," you need not fear; Meta seems to think that if it were to dabble in facial recognition, it could do so in a "thoughtful" way. In a statement made to Wired, a Meta spokesperson didn't rule out the possibility of using facial recognition in its Ray-Ban-branded smart glasses, but stated that if it did, it would do so responsibly. Here's the full comment: "Our competitors offer this type of facial recognition product, we do not. If we were to release such a feature, we would take a very thoughtful approach before rolling anything out." That's obviously not much to work off of, but it says a couple of things. One is that Meta doesn't seem to be ruling out facial recognition, which is a major statement, especially because there are quite a few companies that take a more privacy-forward approach to smart glasses. Some of them, like Even Realities, don't even put cameras or speakers in their smart glasses, which is a philosophical choice. That's all to say that, if Meta wanted to, it could easily say "no" to facial recognition right now. It also says that Meta is seemingly aware that the issue is a fraught one, and it definitely should know that by now. The comment made to Wired was given in the context of several civil rights groups, including the ACLU and Fight for the Future, making their feelings on Meta's potential plans to add facial recognition to its smart glasses known. To no one's surprise, none of those 70-ish civil rights groups is a big fan. Here's an excerpt from an open letter to Meta: "Facial recognition technology built into inconspicuous consumer eyewear represents a serious threat to privacy and civil liberties for every member of our society, and particularly for historically marginalized and vulnerable groups, including domestic violence survivors, targets of stalkers and sexual harassers, religious minorities, people of color, LGBTQ+ people, and women and children, among others." While Meta's potential plans to add facial recognition to its smart glasses haven't been confirmed, they've already created a lot of waves. Last month, congressional lawmakers also penned an open letter to Meta asking it to elaborate on the potential use of facial recognition in its smart glasses. Despite those pleas, Meta has been mostly silent. For context, the New York Times was the first to detail internal plans, which Meta said “will launch during a dynamic political environment where many civil society groups that we would expect to attack us would have their resources focused on other concerns,†according to the report. Whether those will ever see the light of day is anyone's guess, but if Meta's recent comments are anything to go on, then it's filed under "definitely maybe" for now.

Your Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses don't have facial recognition yet, and over 70 privacy advocacy organizations want it to stay that way

* Meta has been urged to scrap its rumored Name Tag feature * In an open letter, privacy advocates have said the facial recognition tech is dangerous * Meta hasn't announced Name Tag yet, but a statement suggests the feature may still be coming to Ray-Ban glasses Over 70 organizations are asking Meta to cancel its controversial Name Tag AI glasses feature plans -- out of fear it could supercharge the threat of stalkers and abusers. While not yet officially announced, a report came out last year suggesting that the company wants to develop an always-on AI system with the ability to recognize people's faces and other details from your life, like where you left your keys. The story was amplified earlier this year when The New York Times reaffirmed Meta's rumored plans. What's more, the NYT report included a leaked Reality Labs memo that suggests Meta knows the tool is controversial, as it apparently plans to launch Name Tag "during a dynamic political environment where many civil society groups that we would expect to attack us would have their resources focused on other concerns." The document also highlighted possible plans to launch the tool at a conference for the blind to help promote it as an accessibility tool. Despite some possible advantages to Name Tag, various organizations, including the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) and Electronic Privacy Information Center, have signed an open letter urging Meta to protect the public's privacy by never releasing Name Tag or a feature like it. "Facial recognition technology built into inconspicuous consumer eyewear represents a serious threat to privacy and civil liberties for every member of our society, and particularly for historically marginalized and vulnerable groups," the letter explains. It added, "People should be able to move through their daily lives without fear that stalkers, scammers, abusers, federal agents, and activists across the political spectrum are silently and invisibly verifying their identities and potentially matching their names to a wealth of readily available data about their habits, hobbies, relationships, health, and behaviors." In response, Meta issued a statement saying, "Our competitors offer this type of facial recognition product, we do not. If we were to release such a feature, we would take a very thoughtful approach before rolling anything out." The issue some may have with that response is that Meta doesn't promise to never introduce facial recognition to its specs, just that it would do it the right way. However, this comes off the back of reporting that Meta contractors are seeing a lot more of our AI smart glasses' photos and videos than we might have realized. This second smart glasses era has so far managed to dodge the major complaints that plagued Google Glass in terms of privacy, but that has changed. If Meta, Google, and even, possibly, Apple want things to go back in a more positive direction, they need to be careful and make stronger guarantees that the public is being taken seriously. Smart glasses are still something of a novelty -- fun but arguably a lot less useful than our phones, smartwatches, and earbuds. If public backlash continues to grow, a second smart glasses decline will likely follow -- and I say this as someone who thinks the tech could be awesome and would like to see it flourish. We just need to make sure privacy protections are taken seriously. Otherwise, I imagine it won't be long before governments or members of the public start taking action. Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button! And of course, you can also follow TechRadar on YouTube and TikTok for news, reviews, unboxings in video form, and get regular updates from us on WhatsApp too

ACLU leads 75 groups urging Meta to drop face recognition

The ACLU and 75 other organizations sent an open letter to Meta $META CEO Mark Zuckerberg demanding the company abandon plans to equip its Ray-Ban and Oakley smart glasses with facial recognition technology, calling the feature an "unacceptable threat to privacy and liberty." Rather than seeking guardrails or design tweaks, the coalition -- whose members span civil liberties, domestic violence, reproductive rights, labor, and immigrant advocacy and include the ACLU of Massachusetts, the New York Civil Liberties Union, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, Fight for the Future, and the National Organization for Women, among dozens of others -- is calling for an outright cancellation of the project. Their letter to Zuckerberg asserts that the hazards posed by facial recognition built into everyday eyewear are not the kind that can be addressed through "product design changes, opt-out mechanisms, or incremental safeguards." Wired reports that the feature, called "Name Tag" within the company, would work through the AI assistant in Meta's smart glasses. It would let users get information about people they meet. There are two possible versions: one would only recognize existing contacts on Meta's platforms, while the other could identify anyone with a public account on services like Instagram. "The American people have not consented to this massive invasion of privacy," said Kade Crockford, director of technology and justice programs at the ACLU of Massachusetts, in a statement. "Stalkers and scammers would have a field day with this technology. Federal agents could use it to harass and intimidate their critics." Beyond scrapping the feature, the letter puts two additional demands on Meta: that the company come clean about whether its wearable devices have already appeared in stalking, harassment, or domestic violence incidents, and that it be transparent about any conversations -- past or current -- it has held with federal law enforcement bodies such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection regarding its glasses or the data they collect. The letter also takes direct aim at an internal Reality Labs memo, surfaced by The New York Times, in which Meta employees wrote of timing the rollout to coincide with a moment when advocacy organizations would be stretched thin by other fights -- characterizing the political climate as one where groups "that we would expect to attack us would have their resources focused on other concerns." Signatories branded that calculation "vile behavior" and accused the company of cynically capitalizing on "rising authoritarianism." "Our competitors offer this type of facial recognition product, we do not," a Meta spokesperson said. "If we were to release such a feature, we would take a very thoughtful approach before rolling anything out." This would not be the first time public pressure made Meta change its approach to face recognition. In late 2021, Facebook shut down its photo-tagging feature and deleted the faceprint data of over a billion users. This decision followed a series of costly legal battles, including about $2 billion paid to settle biometric privacy claims in Illinois and Texas, and a $5 billion payment to the FTC in a broader privacy settlement that included face recognition. According to Engadget, this was the largest penalty the agency had ever issued at the time. The groups noted that Meta has paid more than $7 billion in total settlements and fines for privacy violations in recent years.

Meta is building face recognition into your glasses, and civil rights groups are not happy about it

Imagine walking into a room and someone's glasses quietly figuring out who you are. That's what civil liberties groups are trying to prevent. A coalition of over 70 civil liberties, domestic violence, reproductive rights, and LGBTQ+ organizations, including the ACLU, Fight for the Future, Access Now, and more, has sent a letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg demanding that the company kill a rumored facial recognition feature for its Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses before it ever reaches consumers. According to a Wired report, the feature, internally called "Name Tag", would allow wearers to point their glasses at a stranger and pull up information about them using Meta's AI assistant. Engineers are reportedly weighing two versions: one that identifies people you're already connected with on Meta platforms, and a broader version that could recognize anyone with a public Facebook or Instagram account. Recommended Videos The civil rights group argues that no amount of design tweaks or opt-out mechanisms can make this feature safe. Bystanders on the street have no way to consent to being identified, and the coalition says the technology could be weaponized by stalkers, abusers, and federal law enforcement agencies. Why is the timing so suspicious? What makes this story particularly troubling is a leaked internal Meta memo from May 2025. As reported by the NY Times, the company reportedly noted that it planned to launch during a "dynamic political environment," where civil society groups would have their attention pulled elsewhere. The coalition has called this "vile behavior," and rightly so. Meta Ray-Bans were already in hot water as an investigation revealed that the smart glasses were sending video recordings of users' most personal moments for AI training. The new facial recognition feature is another big slap in the face of its customers' privacy. Should you be worried? If you own a pair of Ray-Ban Meta glasses, the existing hardware can secretly record video. Adding facial recognition on top of that would mean anyone you walk past could, in theory, be silently identified and matched to a trail of personal data, and other Meta Ray-Ban users could do the same to you. I don't really have high hopes about privacy and security from a company like Meta, but this is really traversing uncharted waters and could potentially cause physical harm to people in the real world. Meta has responded by saying it does not currently offer this feature and would take a "very thoughtful approach" before rolling anything out. Whether that promise holds remains to be seen.

Huge Group of Experts Warns Meta That Its Pervert Glasses Will Enable Terrible Crimes

Last month, a joint investigation by two Swedish newspapers found that contractors in Kenya were watching personal videos recorded by users of Meta's Ray Ban AI glasses. The devices, which can easily be used to film others in public without their knowledge or consent, have been facing a growing backlash online, with netizens calling them out for being "pervert glasses." Now, Meta's plans to add facial recognition tech to its hardware, as part of a new feature internally dubbed "Name Tag," has outraged rights groups. As Wired reports, a coalition of over 70 civil liberties, domestic violence, LGBTQ+, labor, and immigrant advocacy organizations has signed a petition, calling on Meta to cancel it altogether. In February, the New York Times first reported on the facial recognition feature, which would let wearers identity people and receive information about them via an AI assistant. An internal document viewed by the newspaper revealed that Meta was planning to first roll out the feature at a conference for the blind. Ironically, Meta expected rights groups to be too busy to step in, given the disastrous geopolitical climate. "We will launch during a dynamic political environment where many civil society groups that we would expect to attack us would have their resources focused on other concerns," the document reads, as quoted by the NYT. But given the latest news, plenty are lining up to oppose the new feature. In a public letter addressed to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the coalition called on the billionaire to "immediately halt and publicly disavow its plans to deploy facial recognition features on its Ray-Ban and Oakley glasses." The group specifically singled out Meta for "taking advantage of rising authoritarianism and this federal administration's disregard for the rule of law to roll out a product that will harm vulnerable people while further imperiling our democracy," describing the act as "vile behavior, unbecoming of a company with such a prominent role in shaping our children, our society, and our future." The coalition is made up of 75 civil liberties groups, including the ACLU, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, GLAAD, Mothers Against Media Addiction, Reproductive Equity Now, and the Women's Bar Association of Massachusetts. "For two decades, it has been clear that the ethos of 'move fast and break things' exploits consumers, endangers vulnerable communities, and profoundly undermines civil rights and civil liberties," the letter reads. "Meta's new plans will only compound that disastrous track record." Such a feature "cannot be resolved through product design changes, opt-out mechanisms, or incremental safeguards," the coalition argued, especially considering bystanders in public have no way to consent to being identified by the glasses. It's an especially precarious situation, given the Trump administration's militarization of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, whose agents have been using cutting-edge tech to identify their targets. "People should be able to move through their daily lives without fear that stalkers, scammers, abusers, federal agents, and activists across the political spectrum are silently and invisibly verifying their identities and potentially matching their names to a wealth of readily available data about their habits, hobbies, relationships, health, and behaviors," the coalition wrote in its letter. As Wired points out, if Meta were to shut down the facial recognition feature, it wouldn't be the first time. In late 2021, the company canceled a Facebook phototagging feature that used the tech to identify individuals. "We need to weigh the positive use cases for facial recognition against growing societal concerns, especially as regulators have yet to provide clear rules," the company wrote in an announcement at the time. Meta has also been ordered to pay billions of dollars to settle biometric privacy lawsuits, some of which were related to the use of facial recognition software. "When you move fast, you break things -- and in this case, the casualties may well include our democracy, our privacy, and countless individuals, families, and communities," the coalition's letter reads. "An approach to technology that privatizes profit and socializes harm carries with it irreversible consequences for people's safety, liberty, and civil rights."

Over 75 Privacy Orgs Urge Meta to Not Develop Facial Recognition Feature

In 2021, Meta shut down its facial recognition technology on Facebook Meta's purported development of an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered facial recognition technology for its future smart glasses has raised concerns among privacy advocates. An open letter signed by 77 organisations working in the privacy and civil liberties space has been published, urging the Menlo Park-based tech giant to stop the development of such a feature. Notably, earlier this year, reports had claimed that Meta was developing a facial recognition feature that would allow its future smart glasses to detect and identify people around the wearer. Organisations Urge Meta Not to Develop Facial Recognition Feature An open letter signed by 77 organisations such as the American Civil Liberties Union, Boston Teachers Union, and Free Speech Coalition has been published online. Directed to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the letter urges the company to "immediately halt and publicly disavow its plans to deploy facial recognition features on its Ray-Ban and Oakley glasses, including the feature reportedly known internally as Name Tag." To add context, earlier this year, reports claimed that Meta was developing a facial recognition technology dubbed Name Tag. It is said to use a live AI assistant that can automatically detect objects and people around the user. While it is not known how the company plans to build the dataset to recognise people, one possibility is using its massive user base's information across Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, and Threads. But these are just speculations. The open letter highlights that facial recognition poses a threat to privacy and civil liberties, especially for marginalised and vulnerable groups. It mentions issues such as stalking, harassment, and threats to life and livelihood that could be violated by the feature, even if there's an opt-out from it. The group asks Meta not to release any facial recognition-related feature, and publicly disclose any known instances when its device was used in the context of stalking, harassment, or violence, along with steps taken to mitigate such instances. In response, a Meta spokesperson told Engadget, "Our competitors offer this type of facial recognition product, we do not. If we were to release such a feature, we would take a very thoughtful approach before rolling anything out."