Meta Silently Added Face-Recognition Code for Its Smart Glasses to Millions of Phones
Meta quietly embedded face-recognition technology called NameTag into its AI app, distributed to over 50 million phones, despite earlier public statements claiming it was still evaluating the feature. The system, which creates biometric faceprints and checks them against stored data, raises privacy concerns and revives controversial practices Meta abandoned in 2021 after legal settlements over biometric data collection.
Meta has discreetly integrated face-recognition software, internally named NameTag, into its AI app, which is required for using its smart glasses, including Ray-Ban and Oakley models. The app, downloaded over 50 million times, now contains three AI models that detect, crop, and encode faces into biometric signatures, though the feature remains disabled. WIRED’s analysis found that core components of NameTag were added to the app as early as January, contradicting Meta’s April statement that it was still considering a ‘thoughtful approach’ to face recognition. The technology would allow Meta’s smart glasses to identify people in real time and notify wearers when a recognized face appears, while storing unrecognized faces in a ‘pending’ folder. This system revives Meta’s earlier practice of collecting biometric data, which the company abandoned in 2021 after deleting over a billion faceprints from Facebook users. Meta later settled lawsuits for $650 million in Illinois and $1.4 billion in Texas over unlawful biometric data collection, but NameTag suggests a return to similar surveillance capabilities. Privacy advocates warn that widespread consumer face recognition could enable misuse by stalkers, law enforcement, or immigration agents. Internal Meta documents, published by *The New York Times* in February, indicated the company planned to roll out the feature during a ‘dynamic political environment’ when opposition might be weaker. Security researchers, including those from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, confirmed WIRED’s findings, noting that the app’s infrastructure is already in place on millions of devices. While the feature is currently labeled ‘Connections’ in the app’s May update, its functionality remains unclear, including how faces are added to the recognition database and how many individuals could be identifiable. Meta has not publicly activated NameTag, but its presence in the app raises questions about transparency and user consent, especially given the company’s history of legal and ethical controversies surrounding biometric data.
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