Meta reportedly wants to add face recognition to smart glasses while privacy advocates are distracted

"Meta aims to introduce facial recognition to its smart glasses while its biggest critics are distracted, according to a report from The New York Times. In an internal document reviewed by The Times, Meta says it will launch the feature "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 is from last May and reportedly describes the new "Name Tag" feature that would allow smart glasses wearers"

"Sources tell The Times that the facial recognition technology wouldn't allow people to identify everyone they see. Instead, Meta is reportedly considering using the feature to detect people that the wearer is connected with on one of Meta's platforms. It's also exploring "identifying people whom the user may not know but who have a public account on a Meta site like Instagram," according to The New York Times."

"Meta has faced legal battles for using facial recognition tools before. After launching the ability to tag people in Facebook photos using facial recognition in 2017, the company discontinued its use of the technology in 2021. But recent reports suggest that Meta is considering working with facial recognition once again. Last year, The Information reported that Meta's new AI glasses could come with an always-on "super-sensing" mode that uses built-in cameras to track your daily activities and recognize people by name."

Meta plans to introduce a 'Name Tag' facial-recognition feature on its Ray-Ban and Oakley smart glasses and may launch it as soon as this year. An internal document states the company planned timing when civil society groups might be preoccupied. The feature would let wearers identify people using Meta's AI assistant, focusing on people the wearer is connected with or those with public Meta accounts such as Instagram. Meta previously offered facial recognition for Facebook photo tagging and discontinued it in 2021 after legal challenges. Recent reports describe an always-on 'super-sensing' mode that tracks daily activities and recognizes people by name.

Read at The Verge