An investigation by Swedish newspapers has uncovered that private and intimate footage captured by Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses is being reviewed by contractors in Kenya who see uncensored content recorded by the smart glasses including bathroom visits, people undressing, and sexual activity.
A joint investigation published by Swedish newspapers Svenska Dagbladet and Göteborgs-Posten has revealed troubling privacy concerns for users of Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses. The investigation found that sensitive personal footage captured by these devices is being reviewed by contractors in Kenya who have access to uncensored content, including highly intimate moments that users likely never intended to share.
According to the investigation, much of the footage captured by Meta’s smart glasses is reviewed by contracted workers at Sama, a Kenya-based company. These workers serve as data annotators tasked with reviewing footage from the glasses’ cameras and labeling it to help AI systems improve their ability to identify what they see. The process requires workers to meticulously label everything visible on screen that can be identified.
Meta has reportedly sold more than seven million pairs of these smart glasses, which have grown increasingly popular over the past year. However, the investigation suggests that the massive volume of footage being sent to contractors for review does not undergo significant filtering before reaching workers’ stations.
Contractors reported being able to view a wide range of personal information captured in the footage. This includes credit card details when wearers complete transactions at stores and text messages visible when users look down at their phones. While such content might be accidentally captured when users forget to turn off the recording feature, some contractors reported viewing far more intimate material than they anticipated.
One contractor for Sama told the Swedish newspapers that some videos show people using the bathroom or getting undressed. “I don’t think they know, because if they knew, they wouldn’t be recording,” the contractor said. Another contractor described reviewing footage where the glasses wearer had set the device down on a bedside table, after which the wearer’s wife entered the room and undressed, presumably unaware she was being recorded. Additional footage reportedly included wearers watching pornography or recording themselves engaged in sexual activity.
The contractors indicated they would prefer not to view such intimate content but risk losing their employment if they refuse to label certain material. “You understand that it is someone’s private life you are looking at, but at the same time you are just expected to carry out the work,” an employee told the newspapers. “You are not supposed to question it. If you start asking questions, you are gone.”
Meta’s terms of service for its artificial intelligence products, which cover the smart glasses, do address this practice. The terms state that the company can review user interactions with AI systems, including conversation content and messages, through both automated and manual human review. The terms also note that content from users can be reviewed through third-party vendors in some instances for purposes including providing, maintaining, and improving Meta services and features, as well as monitoring use for compliance with the terms and applicable laws.
A Meta spokesperson provided the following statement to Breitbart News:
Ray-Ban Meta glasses help you use AI, hands free, to answer questions about the world around you. Unless users choose to share media they’ve captured with Meta or others, that media stays on the user’s device. When people share content with Meta AI, we sometimes use contractors to review this data for the purpose of improving people’s experience, as many other companies do. We take steps to filter this data to protect people’s privacy and to help prevent identifying information from being reviewed.
Read more at Svenska Dagbladet here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship.
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