Meta Plans to Add Facial Recognition to Its Smart Glasses

Meta plans to add facial recognition, internally called "Name Tag," to its Ray-Ban–made smart glasses as soon as this year. The feature would let wearers identify people and access information through Meta’s artificial intelligence assistant. EssilorLuxottica, which makes the glasses with Meta, said it sold more than seven million pairs last year.

Internal documents describe early plans to first offer Name Tag to attendees at a conference for the blind, a step the company did not take last year. The documents also note the political tumult in the United States could shift critics’ attention away from the feature’s release.

Facial recognition has long raised privacy and civil liberties concerns, including fears it could be used by governments to monitor citizens or by companies to track customers. Some jurisdictions have limited law-enforcement use of the technology, and critics say it is ripe for abuse; Nathan Freed Wessler of the A.C.L.U.

United States

meta, facial recognition, name tag, smart glasses, ray-ban, ai assistant, essilorluxottica, privacy concerns, aclu, law enforcement