Code buried inside the Meta AI app appears to point toward a facial-recognition feature built for Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, according to a report by WIRED.
WIRED’s finding raises immediate privacy concerns about the glasses, which already carry cameras capable of streaming live video.
What the Code Suggests
Researchers examining the Meta AI app’s underlying code found references they say link directly to facial-recognition functionality intended for the Ray-Ban Meta wearable.
Facial recognition technology — software that identifies individuals by mapping and matching their facial features — has faced repeated legal and regulatory challenges across the United States and Europe.
Meta has not publicly announced any such feature for the glasses.
Why It Matters
Ray-Ban Meta glasses allow wearers to record video and audio discreetly, with only a small LED indicator signaling to bystanders that recording is active.
Critics have long argued that indicator light provides insufficient warning to the public.
Adding facial recognition to that capability would let a wearer potentially identify strangers in real time without their knowledge or consent.
Harvard students demonstrated a version of that risk in October 2024, building a tool called I-XRAY that paired Meta’s Ray-Ban glasses with facial-recognition databases to surface personal information about people on the street.
That project used publicly available tools — not any hidden Meta feature — but it illustrated how quickly the technology could be weaponized if paired with wearable cameras.
Meta’s Track Record on Facial Recognition
Meta carries a complicated history with the technology.
The company shut down its Facebook facial-recognition system in November 2021, deleting the face-scan data of more than 1 billion users after sustained regulatory and public pressure, according to Meta's own announcement.
That move came after Facebook paid $650 million in 2020 to settle a class-action lawsuit in Illinois over alleged violations of the state’s Biometric Information Privacy Act, one of the strictest biometric data laws in the country, court filings confirmed.
Still, the presence of facial-recognition code — even undisclosed — inside a Meta product would mark a significant reversal of the company’s stated direction on the issue.
Regulatory Environment
Regulators in the European Union and several U.S. states have moved aggressively against broad biometric data collection.
The EU’s Artificial Intelligence Act, which began phasing in during 2024, places strict limits on real-time biometric identification in public spaces.
In the United States, no comprehensive federal biometric privacy law exists, though states including Illinois, Texas, and Washington maintain their own statutes.
Meta has not responded publicly to WIRED’s specific findings about the code.
Ray-Ban Meta glasses launched in a second-generation form in late 2023, with Meta and EssilorLuxottica — the parent company of Ray-Ban — jointly marketing the device as a mainstream consumer product.
