- Meta has been asked to remove its Name Tag feature, according to rumor.
- In open letter, privacy advocates say facial recognition technology is dangerous
- Meta has yet to announce Name Tag, but a statement suggests the feature could still be available on Ray-Ban glasses.
More than 70 organizations are calling on Meta to cancel its controversial Name Tag AI glasses plans – for fear it could increase the threat from harassers and abusers.
Although it hasn’t been officially announced yet, a report published last year suggests the company wants to develop an always-on AI system that can recognize people’s faces and other details of your life, like where you left your keys. The story was amplified earlier this year when The New York Times reaffirmed Meta’s supposed plans.
Additionally, the New York Times report included a leaked memo from Reality Labs that suggests Meta knows the tool is controversial because it apparently plans to launch Name Tag “in a dynamic political environment where many of the civil society groups we expect to attack us would focus their resources on other concerns.” »
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The document also highlights possible plans to launch the tool at a conference for the blind to help promote it as an accessibility tool.
Despite some possible benefits of Name Tag, various organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Electronic Privacy Information Center, signed an open letter urging Meta to protect the public’s privacy by never releasing Name Tag or a similar feature.
“Facial recognition technology embedded in discreet consumer glasses poses a serious threat to the privacy and civil liberties of every member of our society, and particularly to historically marginalized and vulnerable groups,” the letter explains.
He adds: “People should be able to move through their daily lives without fear that stalkers, scammers, attackers, federal agents and activists from across the political spectrum will silently and invisibly verify their identities and potentially match their names to a wealth of readily available data about their habits, hobbies, relationships, health and behaviors. »
In response, Meta released a statement saying: “Our competitors offer this type of facial recognition product, we do not. If we were to launch such a feature, we would take a very considered approach before rolling anything out.”
The problem some might have with this answer is that Meta isn’t promising to never introduce facial recognition into its specs, just to do it the right way. However, this comes from the fact that Meta entrepreneurs see many more photos and videos from our AI smart glasses than we might have thought.
This second era of smart glasses has so far managed to avoid the main complaints that plagued Google Glass in terms of privacy, but that has changed. If Meta, Google and even, eventually, Apple want things to move back in a more positive direction, they need to be careful and more firmly guarantee that the public is taken seriously.
Smart glasses are still a novelty – fun but arguably far less useful than our phones, smartwatches and headphones. If public backlash continues to grow, a second decline in smart glasses will likely follow – and I say this as someone who thinks the technology could be great and would like to see it thrive.
We just need to make sure that privacy is taken seriously. Otherwise, I imagine it won’t be long before governments or citizens start to act.
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