Meta hit with a class action lawsuit over smart glasses' privacy claims

Meta is being sued in a class action lawsuit filed in San Francisco federal court, alleging that the company misled users about the privacy features of its Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses. The lawsuit stems from reports that Meta uses human contractors to review footage captured by the glasses, including potentially sensitive and private content like bathroom visits and sexual encounters, as reported by subcontractors in Kenya to Svenska Dagbladet. The plaintiffs, two individuals from California and New Jersey, claim they purchased the glasses based on Meta’s privacy assurances and would not have done so if they had known about the contractor review process.

Meta acknowledged that data from the glasses can be shared with contractors to improve user experience, but maintains that users must explicitly share media for it to be reviewed. However, the lawsuit points out that using the glasses’ AI features necessitates sharing surrounding footage with Meta, which can then be used for AI training purposes. Meta’s privacy policy doesn’t explicitly mention the use of human contractors in this process.

The lawsuit argues that this undisclosed review pipeline is “materially misleading,” turning the glasses into a “surveillance conduit” and exposing users to risks like identity theft and emotional distress. Contractors have reportedly viewed sensitive information like credit card numbers and nudity, and claim Meta’s anonymization safeguards are unreliable. The suit seeks monetary damages and an injunction to prevent Meta from continuing the alleged deceptive practices.

(Source：Engadget)