Report says Meta smart glasses footage is reviewed by contractors in Kenya

In short: Swedish media report that contractors in Nairobi reviewed sensitive videos from Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses, including private moments.

What happened

An investigation by Swedish newspapers Svenska Dagbladet and Göteborgs-Posten, reported by The Verge, says contractors working for Sama in Nairobi, Kenya, reviewed video captured by Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses. The report describes reviewers seeing highly personal scenes, including bathroom visits, undressing, sex, and credit card details.

The glasses include an AI assistant, meaning software that tries to understand what it sees and hears. The investigation says the assistant can continuously process video, audio, images, and text once a user turns the feature on and accepts the terms. The report adds that this processing cannot be fully disabled, and recordings may keep going if the glasses are left on, for example on a nightstand.

According to the investigation, human reviewers label and sort clips to help train Meta’s AI systems, similar to how a teacher marks practice tests so a student improves. The report claims tools meant to hide identities often fail in poor lighting, which can leave faces and bodies visible. It also describes strict working conditions, including non disclosure agreements, monitoring, and low pay compared with US tech jobs.

Meta told The Verge it follows its privacy policy, which says contractors may review some data after privacy filtering to improve AI features. The company also says data can be processed globally, including in countries outside the EU.

Why it matters

If you wear smart glasses at home, you might assume private moments stay private. This reporting raises questions about whether people clearly understand what is collected, who can see it, and how much control they really have, especially in Europe where GDPR privacy rules apply.

Source: The Verge AI