How far is too far? According to The Information, Meta is reportedly planning to bring back a feature planned for the first version of its Ray-Ban smart glasses but ultimately abandoned for privacy reasons. The group is reportedly working again on glasses equipped with cameras capable of identifying the faces of people around them.
Privacy in danger
This feature, internally dubbed "super sensing," would provide the wearer with information such as the names of passersby, all in real time. Activation of the feature would not be automatic: the user of the glasses would be prompted to activate it. But the scanned individuals would have no way of objecting.
Worse still, Meta is reportedly considering disabling the light currently used to signal that a recording is in progress, making these devices even more invisible—and therefore more intrusive. In addition to the glasses, the company is reportedly working on integrating “super sensing” into future headphones.
This Black Mirror-esque nightmare raises serious privacy questions. As it stands, it’s hard to see how such a feature could see the light of day in Europe. However, in the United States, it’s conceivable—at least that’s what Meta understands from the political situation surrounding Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
The current FTC, which is less strict in terms of regulation, is reportedly adopting a “flexible and risk-based” approach. The regulator is giving big tech companies more leeway to do whatever they want. Meta has also taken the opportunity to modify its privacy policies. Since April, the voice assistant on its glasses has been activated by default, and users can no longer prevent Meta from storing their voice recordings for training purposes.
Source: The Information
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