Senators Demand Answers on Meta’s Plans for Facial Recognition ‘Smart’ Glasses, Following NYT Report and EPIC Letters

Senators Ed Markey, Jeff Merkley, and Ron Wyden sent a letter Tuesday demanding information on Meta’s alarming plans to incorporate facial recognition into its Ray-Ban Meta ‘smart’ glasses, following a recent bombshell report from the New York Times and a series of letters by EPIC calling on regulators to step in.

The Times reported last month that Meta plans to embed facial recognition technology into its smart glasses, potentially as soon as this year. This integration would allow wearers to identify individuals around them and receive real-time information about these individuals.

“Given Meta’s vast data collections, its smart glasses could capture images of thousands of people without their knowledge or consent and then instantly link those faces to names, workplaces, or personal profiles, creating serious risks of stalking, harassment, and targeted intimidation,” the Senators’ letter reads. “This frictionless identification and constant monitoring also risks normalizing mass surveillance at a moment when the federal government is using similar tools to intimidate protesters and chill speech.”

The letter presses Meta on multiple questions, including how Meta could possibly protect the rights of non-users whose images are captured by a facial recognition system, who would be subjected to identification by the glasses, how Meta intends prevent the technology from being abused, and how Meta could eliminate the heightened threat of such technology to marginalized populations. 

The Senators’ inquiry echoes warnings raised by EPIC in a series of letters to federal and state regulators on the day of the Times’ report. “This feature would pose a grave risk to privacy, safety, and civil liberties and would cause widespread harm to the public. It must not be allowed to reach the market,” EPIC warned. “[I]t is crucial that regulators act now to prevent this planned feature from being deployed in every bathroom, clinic, classroom, house of worship, and protest in the country.” 

EPIC sent letters to the Federal Trade Commission and the nine member states of the Consortium of Privacy Regulators, which includes California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Indiana, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, and Oregon. 

An internal Meta memo cited by the Times stated that Meta wished to take advantage of today’s “dynamic political environment” to launch this feature while “many civil society groups that we would expect to attack us would have their resources focused on other concerns.” As the response from EPIC, members of the U.S. Senate, and others reflects, that strategy has failed.