The things you record with your AI-powered Meta Ray-Ban glasses — yes, even those intimate moments where you think you’re alone — are probably being seen by strangers.
An investigation by Swedish outlets Svenska Dagbladet and Göteborgs-Posten found that offshore Meta workers in Kenya were asked to analyze intimate and even “disturbing” videos taken by glasses wearers, including videos taken in bathrooms, footage featuring nudity and sexual content, and images showing personal information like bank accounts. It’s part of a process known as data labeling, used to train AI models with footage first reviewed and annotated by humans so that the AI can understand what it’s “looking” at.
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Workers told the publication that many of the videos appear to be moments captured when users weren’t aware they were being recorded. The group works under Sama, the same Meta contractor facing a class action lawsuit on behalf of content moderators who allege they have been exploited and forced to review traumatic content without proper working conditions.
“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. You are not supposed to question it. If you start asking questions, you are gone,” one employee told the publications.
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Meta’s Terms of Service reserves the right to send users’ interactions with its AI services, including its always-on live AI features, to human moderators — the company referred to this policy when asked for comment by the news outlets.
The Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses collaboration initially launched in 2023 to mixed reviews about its photo and video capabilities and AI features. Meta released the upgraded AI-powered Meta Ray-Ban Display model in September, complete with a new Neural Band interface and promises of AI assistant integrations that would turn them into glasses of the future.
Sales of the glasses tripled in 2025, CNBC reported, with more than 7 million units sold.
But in the months since, Meta’s wearable eye camera device has received widespread blowback, following a rise in influencer content depicting Meta glasses wearers secretly recording and even harassing unsuspecting strangers. Wearers have deduced ways to obscure the glasses’ always-on recording light, intended to alert the public when a user is taking video, and instead turned the smart device into a tool for viral pickup artists and pranksters.
In addition to concerns about personal consent, the device has prompted worries about a fast-growing web of surveillance and facial recognition tech, which Meta has previously come under fire for. The company later said it was moving ahead with live AI features, including potential facial recognition, in 2025 — with the upgrade, a device “always keep its cameras and sensors turned on and use AI to remember what its wearer encountered throughout a day.” Privacy advocates also warn the technology could one day be harnessed by third parties, including the federal government’s own militarized police forces.
