Smart Glasses: Meta reportedly tested facial recognition from Pentagon supplier

To develop possible facial recognition for its smart glasses, Meta is said to have used technology from a US company that primarily supplies the military, secret services and law enforcement agencies.

This emerges from a software license from the company Rank One Computing (ROC), which is available to the tech magazine Wired and is said to be linked to a test version of the Meta-AI app. The Meta-AI app is required for the setup and central functions of the Ray-Ban Meta glasses and other smart glasses from the company.

At the beginning of June, Wired reported on inactive program code for a facial recognition function developed by Meta in the Meta AI app. Shortly after the report was published, Meta largely removed the code for the internally called “Nametag” function via an update.

Traces of external facial recognition systems

According to the new Wired report, the software license acquired by Meta includes not only ROC’s facial recognition, but also a function that checks whether a camera captures a living person, a photo or a mask. The license should support up to ten million face templates. Wired found traces of the software in a version of the Meta AI app that was said to have been distributed to users in June. This included components for checking the license and starting the software. However, these functions were not activated, nor was Meta’s own facial recognition software.

Rank One Computing is a Denver company that develops facial recognition technology and derives much of its revenue from government customers. It was founded in 2015 by engineers who had previously worked on facial recognition systems at the Noblis research institute. At the helm is B. Scott Swann, who formerly headed the FBI’s biometric database division. The board of directors includes former high-ranking employees of the CIA, FBI and Pentagon. According to Wired, customers and users include the US Marshals Service, a federal law enforcement agency, the US Navy’s criminal investigation agency NCIS and police departments.

Meta does not exclude facial recognition

Regarding the Wired findings surrounding the system, which is internally called “Nametag,” Meta emphasized that no facial recognition function has been introduced for users so far and that it is a “purely exploratory” project. The company has not yet made a final decision about whether and how it will proceed with facial recognition. “If we introduce something, we will do so carefully and with full transparency,” Meta said at the beginning of June.

Nevertheless, the findings show that Meta was not only actively working on a facial recognition function, but was also apparently testing technology from an external facial recognition provider. This is particularly explosive because of Rank One’s proximity to state security and law enforcement authorities.

(tobe)