Meta's Ray-Bans: Clickworkers see sex videos

Videos recorded with Meta's Ray-Ban or Oakley glasses are not stored locally on the device or the smartphone with the associated Meta AI app. This doesn't seem to be clear to many people. Because, as “Svenska Dagbladet” reports, videos of rather intimate moments also end up with the responsible clickworkers.

Whether sex or going to the toilet. According to the report, such recordings are said to have appeared with workers in Kenya. The people there evaluate videos, label and mark them. This is called data annotation. New AI models are then trained with the data prepared in this way. These people can safely be called the backbone of AI, because without their work, the AI models of all companies would be significantly less powerful or intelligent.

It is also known that the work can often be stressful. Content can show violence, for example. This also has to be labeled so that an AI model can learn what violence looks like or what is considered violence – and what may then not be generated if such a policy exists for a model. Clickworkers usually receive very little money and also suffer psychologically from the tasks.

It is not surprising that they get to see intimate situations or even bank details. However, it is surprising that users of smart glasses seem to have so little awareness of the potential sharing of data.

Meta considers procedure transparent

Meta refers to the privacy policy and terms of service. When asked by heise online, a spokesperson said, “When people share content with Meta AI, like other companies, we sometimes use contractors to review this data to improve people's experience with the glasses.” This is clearly stated in the policies.

Voice recordings can indeed not be automatically shared according to the privacy policy. Meta may have learned from previous scandals involving Amazon's Alexa and Apple's Siri. Here too, voice recordings ended up with people who had to listen to and evaluate them for the improvement of their products.

However, video recordings made with Ray-Bans and Oakleys can always be passed on to Meta and other companies. This cannot be switched off. Meta AI, the service and the app of the same name responsible for processing user requests, can only fulfill the offered functions through data transfer. In other words, for Meta AI to be able to tell the user in front of which building they are standing, the images must be sent to Meta and evaluated there.

As the Swedish daily newspaper reports, the anonymization of the videos also doesn't work properly. Clickworkers are said to have reported that faces are not pixelated. However, Meta says when asked that they do filter the content to protect people. Continuous improvements to the systems are also being worked on here.

Another point from Meta refers to people's unease about being filmed secretly. The glasses always indicate when they are activated using a small LED in the frame. Meta also states in its terms of service that people should use the services within the framework of legislation and in a respectful manner.

(emw)