Meta is working on facial recognition for smart glasses

HFor some time now, the presence of cameras in Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses has been viewed with suspicion by users, who fear that the technological giant led by Mark Zuckerberg could launch facial recognition systems that would jeopardize the privacy of people who come across the holders of this gadget.

Now the wired magazine highlights that the Meta Ray-Ban glasses application is equipped with a facial recognition system and is capable of identifying people based on images and videos captured with the glasses.

The publication says it investigated the application and found in the company’s Artificial Intelligence – Meta AI – a functionality yet to be launched under the name “NameTag”. The functionality is not only capable of recognizing faces in photographs and videos captured with Meta Ray-Ban, but also warning users when a familiar face is present.

Since the beginning of 2026 Rumors are circulating about Meta’s desire to integrate facial recognition technology into its smart glasses, with the prospect having already received opposition in the form of an open letter – signed by more than 70 different organizations.

In this open letter it was requested that the company “discontinue immediately and publicly repudiate” the integration of facial recognition into your smart glasses. Furthermore, the letter signed by these organizations states that it is not possible to trust Meta to safely incorporate this technology into these gadgets.

“People should be able to move about their daily lives without fear that ‘stalkers’, scammers, abusers, federal agents and activists from across the political spectrum are silently and invisibly verifying their identities and potentially cross-checking their names against a wide variety of data available about them, such as relationships, health and behaviors”can be read in this letter.

As for the “NameTag” spotted by Wired magazine, the functionality is not yet operational and, regarding the investigation, Meta stated that, if announced, this capability would be presented with “complete transparency”.

“Nothing has been released to consumers and no final decision has been made on what, if anything, we will do.”can be read in the Meta statement. “If we decide to launch something, we will take a measured approach and do so with full transparency. A decision we can be clear about – we are not creating a central facial recognition database”.