VICTORY: Meta Strips Facial Recognition Code From Smart Glasses App After Public Outcry

Meta has removed facial recognition code from its Meta AI smart glasses app following public outcry and a WIRED report exposing the technology. The June 5th update stripped the app of face-recognition features, "Person recognized" alerts, and biometric data systems. The company has not confirmed whether it plans to reintroduce the surveillance capabilities or disclosed any data collected during internal testing.

Just days after a damning WIRED report https://www.wired.com/story/meta-smart-glasses-face-recognition-nametag-connections/ exposed that Meta had quietly embedded facial recognition technology FRT code into millions of phones, the tech giant has quietly acquiesced https://www.wired.com/story/meta-removes-face-recognition-code-meta-ai-app-smart-glasses/ in demands to reverse course. Last week, researchers identified code in Meta AI, a companion app for its line of smart glasses, that could convert images of faces into unique biometric signatures to identify strangers in public. EFF’s Threat Lab verified these findings https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/06/move-fast-surveil-things through static analysis, and reminded consumers to think twice https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/03/think-twice-buying-or-using-metas-ray-bans before buying or using Meta’s surveillance glasses. Just as quietly as Meta embedded this code, the app’s June 5th app update appears to have quietly removed all those features and systems. Gone is the face-recognition technology, the code meant to trigger “Person recognized” alerts, and the machine learning models and databases designed to detect, digitize, and store the biometric signatures of people users engage with. When WIRED broke the news last week, Meta’s executives immediately went on the defensive https://x.com/andymstone/status/2062596820555956638 . Yet, their actions speak louder than their tweets: less than 48 hours after the public caught wind of their plans, Meta quietly launched an update to scrub nearly all traces of the FRT system from their app. But this quiet deletion of code does not equal a permanent change of heart. Meta previously used https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/11/face-recognition-so-toxic-facebook-dumping-it face recognition, and stopped only after it faced the legal and financial consequences https://techcrunch.com/2021/03/01/facebook-illinois-class-action-bipa/ . Now the company has refused to answer WIRED’s inquiries on whether it plans to bring the NameTag system back in the future, or what they did with any data they may have already collected during internal testing. There are billions of reasons not to https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/02/seven-billion-reasons-facebook-abandon-its-face-recognition-plans turn Meta’s customers into a distributed surveillance machine. This whiplash behavior proves exactly why we cannot rely on the "good will" of Big Tech to protect our digital rights. We need robust, enforceable consumer privacy laws, complete with a private right of action http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/01/you-should-have-right-sue-companies-violate-your-privacy that allows everyday people to sue companies that violate their biometric privacy. While we won this round, Meta's FRT ambitions probably aren't going away. EFF will keep watching.