Meta faces fresh privacy lawsuit over AI smart glasses recordings

MUMBAI: Meta’s smart glasses may be hands-free, but the privacy questions are proving harder to see through. The company is facing a fresh privacy lawsuit over its AI-powered glasses, with an amended complaint alleging that recordings captured by the devices were sent to third-party contractors and may have been used to develop Meta’s artificial intelligence systems.

The case was first filed in federal court in California in March, but an amended complaint filed on August 31 has widened the proposed litigation to include people who did not own or use the glasses but were allegedly recorded by them without their knowledge.

At the centre of the dispute is Meta’s privacy messaging around the devices. The plaintiffs argue that the glasses were presented as privacy-conscious products without adequately explaining what can happen to recordings when AI features are activated.

The glasses combine cameras and microphones with Meta’s AI tools, allowing users to ask questions about their surroundings, identify objects and landmarks, translate information and capture photographs or videos hands-free. Meta says a light on the device signals when the camera is recording, while users can manage or delete photos, videos and voice interactions through its software.

The amended lawsuit alleges that using AI features can send audio and visual material to Meta’s servers, with some of that information potentially being used to train the company’s AI models.

The expanded case also raises a thornier question: what happens to people who never agreed to be part of the experiment? Plaintiffs argue that even a bystander who notices the glasses and agrees to being recorded may not have consented to the wider collection, storage, processing and human review of that material.

The allegations follow a February 2026 investigation by Swedish newspapers Svenska Dagbladet and Göteborgs-Posten, which included interviews with workers at Sama, a Kenya-based outsourcing company that carried out data-annotation work for Meta.

Those workers reportedly described reviewing footage captured by Ray-Ban Meta glasses. The material allegedly included highly private situations, such as people changing clothes, using bathrooms and engaging in intimate activity, alongside financial and other personal information.

The original lawsuit cited that reporting in arguing that Meta’s privacy disclosures did not make sufficiently clear that people could review recordings as part of the AI-development process. It also alleged that footage was sent to Sama workers in Kenya and that some reviewers could see identifiable faces.

Meta has rejected the allegations.

“We disagree with these allegations and will fight them,” a Meta spokesperson told Fortune. The company said Meta AI can involve human review of data to improve its products and user experiences, while adding that it takes steps to filter information, remove identifying details and protect privacy.

The lawsuit remains pending, and the allegations have not been established in court.