Meta Ray-Bans: Investigations in USA and UK

Investigations are underway in both Great Britain and the USA to determine whether Meta has violated consumer protection laws by sharing videos from smart glasses. The Swedish newspaper Dagebladet spoke with clickworkers in Kenya who reported seeing intimate recordings. Meta cites its terms of service, which state that recordings can be shared.

The UK's data protection authority, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), is not satisfied with this explanation. They criticize Meta for advertising that the smart glasses give “users control over their data.” This is apparently not the case. There is a lack of adequate transparency. Providers must communicate very clearly which data is collected and how it is analyzed and used, the BBC quotes a statement from the ICO. According to this, Meta must first answer questions about the allegations from the article.

In the USA, two representatives from a civil rights-oriented law firm have even filed a lawsuit. They accuse Meta of violating privacy policies and making false advertising claims. Meta states that the glasses are “built for your privacy” and “controlled by you.” This misleads consumers, as it cannot be inferred that data, specifically videos, would be sent to human data annotators in Kenya. The accusations are also directed at EssilorLuxottica, the manufacturer of Ray-Ban and Oakley glasses.

Meta AI runs on Meta's servers

Data annotators process data on an assembly line. They sort and label content so that it can be used for training AI models. Meta's terms of service and privacy policy state that videos recorded with the glasses can be sent to subcontractors and human reviewers. To know this, however, one must read both very carefully. Both investigations focus on the question of Meta's communication. It is not about whether Meta could be prohibited from sharing data.

Fundamentally, videos are sent to Meta's servers as soon as Meta AI is involved. Most AI functions can only be used this way. An exception, for example, is the translation function, which can be downloaded for individual languages so that translation occurs locally on the device. However, this is not possible, for instance, when asking questions about the content that smart glasses see, such as about a building or other objects.

Not every video that goes through Meta's servers automatically ends up with the clickworkers. However, it is unclear which content is forwarded.

(emw)