Coalition Urges Meta to Abandon Smart Glasses Facial Recognition

A coalition of more than 70 civil liberties, privacy advocacy, and rights organizations has urged Meta to abandon plans for a facial recognition feature in its Ray-Ban and Oakley smart glasses, warning that the technology could enable widespread surveillance and harm vulnerable individuals.

The groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, Electronic Privacy Information Center, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Amnesty International, and Fight for the Future, sent an open letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg calling for the company to immediately halt and publicly disavow development of the feature, internally known as Name Tag. The letter, dated in June, argues that integrating facial recognition into consumer eyewear poses an inherent threat to privacy and civil liberties, particularly for domestic violence survivors, immigrants, protesters, and other marginalized communities. "Facial recognition technology built into inconspicuous consumer eyewear represents a serious threat to privacy and civil liberties for every member of our society," the letter states, emphasizing that bystanders in public spaces cannot meaningfully consent to being identified.