Michael Macor/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images
When Meta announced it would spin off its failing VR goggles division for parts, the bet was simple: Funnel that money into sleek, AI-powered smart glasses. Buoyed by the product’s early success, the company is now working on rolling out the facial recognition feature on a large scale across its entire smart glasses platform — a launch that involves timing the announcement with political drama to minimize scrutiny.
according to New reporting by new York TimesMeta may make facial recognition features available to smart glasses owners as early as this year. Internally, the software is known by the designation “name tag”. Per NYTAccording to sources, this will let anyone with Meta’s smart glasses identify people in the real world, and instantly get their information through Meta’s AI assistant.
From the beginning of 2025, NYT Note, Meta insiders are debating how to roll out this feature, acknowledging the significant “security and privacy risks” associated with it.
What is disturbing is that documents seen by the newspaper allegedly show that the company is planning to wash its product launches through the disabled community. This never happened, although it apparently involved introducing the name tag as an accessibility feature at a conference for blind users before introducing it to the public.
The same documents also argued that the domestic political turmoil across the US in May 2025 – this being the early days of Trump’s deportation campaign, Elon Musk’s DOGE agenda, and more – would make it an attractive time window to release such a controversial feature as the public would be too tired to notice or care.
“We will launch during a dynamic political environment, where many of the civil society groups we would expect to attack us will have their resources focused on other concerns,” the memo said. NYT.
In a statement, Meta told the newspaper that they are “creating products that help millions of people connect and enrich their lives. While we often hear about interest in this type of feature – and some products are already on the market – we’re still considering options and will take a thoughtful approach before introducing anything.”
If they do, Meta’s smart glasses will make an already existing privacy nightmare worse. As Nathan Freed Wechsler, deputy director of the American Civil Liberties Union, explains NYT: “Facial recognition technology on America’s streets poses a uniquely serious threat to the practical anonymity we all rely on. This technology is ripe for abuse.”
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