Investigation Into Meta Glasses Revives Biometric Privacy Pressur
Investigation Into Meta Glasses Revives Biometric Privacy Pressur
Publish Date: 2026-05-20 17:03:00
Source Domain: natlawreview.com
If you were not already aware, Texas has been very aggressive in protecting Texans’ privacy and enforcing Texas law. And that aggressive trend does not appear to be slowing down.
The Texas Attorney General has opened a new investigation into Meta Platforms, Inc., this time focused on the company’s Meta AI Glasses and the privacy practices surrounding their always-on recording features, facial geometry collection, and third-party data handling. The investigation marks the second major enforcement effort the Texas AG’s office has directed at Meta over biometric and surveillance concerns in less than two years.
Meta Glasses are camera-equipped wearables that capture and share audio and video from the wearer’s surroundings. According to the AG’s announcement, Meta’s privacy policy acknowledges an “always enabled” mode that permits the device to continuously process video data for use with Meta AI products. The glasses include an LED indicator intended to signal when recording is active, but the AG’s office notes that the indicator is easily obscured and, more critically, does not illuminate during always-enabled mode. The practical implication is that bystanders, and in some circumstances even wearers themselves, may not be reliably alerted when audio and video capture is occurring.
The investigation also targets Meta’s representations regarding the privacy of data collected through the glasses. Although Meta advertises the product as “designed for privacy” and claims to safeguard personally identifiable information, the AG’s announcement highlights reporting that Meta’s Kenyan subcontractor, Sama, has accessed user content during the data annotation process. Data annotators reportedly have viewed user videos containing intimate moments, including bathroom visits. While Meta represents that faces in annotated data are automatically blurred, at least one annotator has indicated that automatic blurring does not occur in all cases. For…
