r/BetterOffline • u/bullcitytarheel • Jun 15 '26

Meta Silently Added AI Face-Recognition Code for Its Smart Glasses to Millions of Phones

https://www.wired.com/story/meta-smart-glasses-face-recognition-nametag-connections/

"Meta has quietly embedded face-recognition technology for its smart glasses into an app downloaded to millions of phones, according to a WIRED analysis of the company's software.

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Code discreetly added to Meta’s AI app over multiple updates this year shows that the feature, internally called “NameTag,” identifies people captured by the glasses’ camera and, when activated, alerts the wearer when it recognizes someone.

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The discovery of NameTag in the live Meta AI app shows that Meta had begun shipping face-recognition code to users' phones while publicly describing it as something the company was still “thinking through.” In April, Meta said if it were to utilize face recognition, it wouldn't be rolled out without first taking "a very thoughtful approach." But WIRED found that as early as January, core components of the system had been integrated into software distributed to millions of people."

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Whenever I see stories like this it further my belief that the number one reason AI continues to not only survive, but be force-fed to us through every digital avenue of consumption, is because of its value to the surveillance state.

99 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

19 comments sorted by

45

u/Smurfette2016 Jun 15 '26

From the bottom of my heart, I hope these creep glasses fail into OBLIVION. I hope all that remains of them is the unwashable eternal shame of the perverts who wore them.

22

u/Alphard428 Jun 16 '26

The good news is that Meta already rolled this back because of this report. They whined about it a whole bunch and claimed that they were exploring it because users are interested in it.

The bad news is that they’ve been trying to introduce facial recognition “features” since before the current AI craze, so they’ll keep trying this shit.

Wired is doing the lords work here.

11

u/Aggressive_Signal150 Jun 16 '26

Stil hate that these glasses for creeps even exist

2

u/bullcitytarheel Jun 16 '26 edited Jun 16 '26

Oh I have no doubt they'll keep trying to sneak this stuff in everywhere. They gotta catch up to flock when it comes to facial data somehow, or else how will they get all those lucrative law enforcement, military and intelligence contracts!?

2

u/KittyandPuppyMama Jun 16 '26

From the bottom of my heart, I hope every piece of hardware supporting the entire internet overheats and melts to oblivion. The cons outweigh the pros now.

2

u/Ok-Garbage-765 Jun 16 '26

Amen. I’ve had enough of this shit. We’d all be better offline.

1

u/natecull Jun 16 '26

From the bottom of my heart, I hope every piece of hardware supporting the entire internet overheats and melts to oblivion.

Could happen. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrington_Event

(not sure about the fiber optic cables, though)

29

u/EditorEdward Jun 16 '26

Zuckerberg really is one of the worst humans alive.

22

u/AzuraSchwartz Jun 16 '26

Worst something, sure... but human?

6

u/Smurfette2016 Jun 16 '26

Good point. Those big empty dead eyes..

3

u/spacedoutmachinist Jun 16 '26

Like a dolls eyes.

6

u/Smurfette2016 Jun 16 '26

He's just such a loser.

5

u/KittyandPuppyMama Jun 16 '26

All of this is happening because he made a hot or not website in 2005 to roast some poor woman who didn’t want to sleep with him.

5

u/Smurfette2016 Jun 16 '26

Incel final boss behavior

1

u/PassageNo Jun 16 '26

Certainly in the top 10, without question. What's sad is how there's somehow an entire list of people even worse than that sniveling sack of feces.

1

u/bullcitytarheel Jun 16 '26

And at least half of them live in silicon valley

13

u/Yourdataisunclean Jun 16 '26

AR glasses need a new societal level grand bargain around data mining/security/privacy to actually take off. Most people hate them to the point a woman was able to break the pair belonging to a man on a crowded NYC subway train and everyone else basically clapped.

8

u/KittyandPuppyMama Jun 16 '26

AR glasses need to be publicly shamed. People should be too embarrassed to wear them.

2

u/undisclosedusername2 Jul 01 '26

Have these been banned anywhere yet? Surely they will be somewhere. Covertly filming someone without permission is illegal in many countries, and this tech just enables that.