Yet another major privacy issue has hit a Meta-owned company.
This time it’s a Meta product that certainly could not afford to have any privacy issues: Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses.
According to numerous reports from users, Meta’s smart glasses have been making audio recordings of their conversations without the user’s permission.
Meta has since confirmed the issue and have said it’s been fixed.
“This issue has been resolved,” a Meta spokesperson said in a statement to Android Authority. “People can manage, review and delete voice logs of their interactions with Meta AI via settings at any time.”
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In a post on Reddit earlier this week, one user explained that Meta has been recording and making transcripts of their conversations without activating the smart glasses to do so via the “Hey Meta” prompt. The setting to activate recording without that prompt was also turned off when Meta’s smart glasses recorded the conversations. The user said that they noticed the white light on the smart glasses that indicate activation turn on during their conversations.
Even worse, this wasn’t an isolated glitch on a single device. The user shared that they observed the issue occur on three different pairs of Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, which included both second- and third-generation models.
Users in the comments also chimed in sharing their own similar experiences.
Earlier this year, an investigation uncovered that videos recorded by Meta smart glasses were being sent to offshore Meta workers in Kenya for data labeling used to train AI models. These videos included disturbing clips and intimate moments including bathroom footage of users who likely did not realize that their recordings were being viewed by third-parties.
While Meta says it has since fixed the problem, the company did not share what caused the issue.
Smart glasses are already criticized for their ability to covertly record people. Devices recording without even the product owner’s knowledge is are certainly not ideal.
