The decline in technological privacy seems to be another ripple effect of Trump 2.0. On Wednesday, The Information reported that Meta has changed its stance on facial recognition. Having considered but ultimately abandoned the technology for the first version of its smart glasses, the company is now actively working on devices that can recognize faces in the vicinity. Do you remember when it was considered bad manners to be a “glasses guy”?
According to The Information, Meta has recently discussed the possibility of adding software to its smart glasses that scans the faces of passersby and identifies people by name. The company also considered adding this technology to future headphones with artificial intelligence and built-in cameras.
The facial recognition technology will be part of the Meta feature, which is referred to internally as “super sensitivity.” This feature will be based on the live AI function in glasses, which can only stay active for about half an hour (thanks to the battery). However, in future devices expected in 2026, it can work for hours.
The information says that the super-sensitivity mode is unlikely to be the default mode for the glasses. The owner of the glasses will have to turn it on. But the company next to them – those whose faces are being scanned and called out – will not.
To make matters worse, passersby may not even know they are being scanned. Modern Ray-Ban Meta glasses turn on the backlight while recording. This privacy-focused feature likely came about thanks to the lessons Big Tech learned from the social backlash against Google Glass.
But Meta is reportedly questioning whether future glasses should turn on the backlight when the device “super-sensitizes” to them. Uh oh.
Glasses with superhuman memory based on artificial intelligence may sound really cool. No need to memorize anything – just let artificial intelligence scan your surroundings and remind you! But this technology doesn’t sound so much fun when you think about the poor people who live next to one of these Meta-norms.
Along with the revival of facial recognition, Meta has updated its privacy policy. In April, the company changed its terms so that its current smart glasses activate AI by default. The only way to opt out is to deactivate the “Hey Meta!” trigger phrase. Even more interesting is the change that no longer allows glasses owners to refuse to allow the company to store and train on their voice recordings.
The information draws a line from Trump’s re-election to the ethically questionable changes at Meta. The current U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is not overly interested in regulation that slows down big business profit growth. Last month, FTC Commissioner Melissa Golijoak promised a “flexible, risk-based approach to privacy enforcement.” The agency also stopped using labels such as “surveillance advertising.”
