Meta’s AI glasses were a breakout hit of 2025, with more than 7 million pairs sold. But the Bay Area tech giant now faces disconcerting allegations about the footage recorded by the devices’ cameras.
The company pitches its glasses, with their small cameras that have raised some privacy concerns, as safe: “Designed for privacy, controlled by you.” In late February, the Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet, or SvD, published an investigation that said Kenyan subcontractors end up seeing deeply personal footage from the glasses — including bank cards, people changing and people having sex. A new federal lawsuit filed in San Francisco on Wednesday points to the article and accuses Meta of false advertising, fraud and breach of contract.
“Consumers purchased these Glasses believing Meta’s privacy assurances,” the complaint says. “They did not, and could not reasonably, understand that their bedrooms, bathrooms, families, bodies, and more would be exposed to strangers around the world.”
Meta is still analyzing the lawsuit and did not answer SFGATE’s specific questions about why private video might end up at data labeling offices in Kenya. Spokesperson Chris Sgro told SFGATE, “Unless users choose to share media they’ve captured with Meta or others, that media stays on the user’s device.”
“When people share content with Meta AI, we sometimes use contractors to review this data for the purpose of improving people’s experience, as many other companies do,” Sgro’s statement continued. “We take steps to filter this data to protect people’s privacy and to help prevent identifying information from being reviewed.”
