Workers reviewing Meta Ray-Ban footage encounter users’ intimate moments
Workers reviewing Meta Ray-Ban footage encounter users’ intimate moments
https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2026/03/05/meta-ray-ban-smart-glasses-privacy-risks/
Publish Date: 2026-03-05 00:30:00
Source Domain: www.helpnetsecurity.com
Bank details and intimate moments captured without people realizing they are being recorded are the new privacy nightmare behind the latest tech fashion hit, Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses.
A joint investigation by Svenska Dagbladet and Göteborgs-Posten found that footage and audio recorded by Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses are reviewed by human contractors in Kenya, including recordings containing sensitive personal material.
A contractor workforce in Nairobi
A troubling reality for tech giants is that a large part of the AI revolution is built on the labor of workers in poorer countries.
The investigation focused on Sama, a Meta subcontractor in Nairobi, Kenya, employing manual laborers known as data annotators who train AI systems by labeling images, video, and speech.
Thousands of workers are involved in this type of AI training work. Tasks include drawing bounding boxes, assigning object labels, checking transcriptions, and performing quality assurance to help systems interpret visual scenes and user queries.
Journalists interviewed more than thirty Sama employees at different levels. All spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
Interviewees described repeated exposure to highly sensitive clips. Examples include bathroom visits, people undressing, sex, pornography viewed while wearing the glasses, and bank cards visible in recordings. Some workers described seeing material that could trigger enormous scandals if leaked.
According to workers, the facility operates under strict security controls, including office cameras and restrictions on bringing recording-capable devices into the building to prevent leaks.
“You understand that it is someone’s private life you are looking at, but at the same time you are just expected to carry out the work. You are not supposed to question it. If you start asking questions, you are gone,” one worker said.
Former Meta employees said faces appearing in annotation data are automatically blurred….
