Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta has embedded facial recognition tech in its smart glasses, sparking concern from privacy watchdogs. The tech, which Meta hasn’t activated yet, came in an app downloaded to millions of phones that analyzed the software. Known internally as “NameTag,” the feature can identify people captured by the glasses’ camera and alert the wearer when it recognizes someone.
The tech giant reportedly added the code discreetly to the AI app over multiple updates this year.
The smart glasses already faced criticism for enabling creeps and wannabe pickup artists to record unwanted advances toward unsuspecting women and post the cringe-inducing content online.
“NameTag” is embedded in Meta’s AI companion app, downloaded over 50 million times, which helps users utilize key features of its smart glasses, including Ray-Ban and Oakley models.
If Meta opts to enable the tool, faces captured by the smart glasses will get turned into unique biometric signatures, known as faceprints. Meta’s tech will then check each faceprint it encounters against faceprints already stored on the user’s phone, and even send notifications if it recognizes a match. New faceprints the glasses encounter would be indexed and saved, too.
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