Meta is now in the hot seat after a recent discovery has revealed a “Faceprint” code embedded within the software used by its smart glasses wearables. The said code is reportedly capable of using facial recognition to track faces.
This new facial recognition code was discovered by researchers, who said that it is not live or active on the Meta smart glasses platform, but its existence is enough to be a major concern for public and personal safety.
Meta Smart Glasses ‘Faceprint’ Code Discovered
According to a report by Wired, it has investigated a code that it found embedded in Meta’s smart glasses’ AI companion app that was reportedly added by the company over multiple updates in the past months.
The update began January and has continued in recent months on the Meta AI companion app, which has the controls for the smart glasses.
The report from the publication said that the feature has an internal designation of “NameTag” within the app, and it would allow the Meta smart glasses to “biometrically identify” people that it sees through its cameras.
Following this, the wearer would also receive information from the app about that person, like a face tracking feature.
This feature sounds similar to what Amazon and Ring developed for their smart home doorbell with cameras. Specifically, it’s similar the Familiar Faces feature that can identify a person with facial recognition technology that shares a notification whenever they pass by.
Amazon is now facing a lawsuit over this feature, which the plaintiff wants to be turned into a class-action.
Facial Recognition Tracking Code Unveiled
The report said that the code would take biometric face data and store it in an embedded database architecture, which can run in the background and compare existing faceprints to newly scanned ones.
As per the report, the database was designed by the company to only be available on a user’s smartphone, but it could receive updates from Meta.
The facial recognition code discovered by Wired has recently been confirmed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation‘s Threat Lab, verifying that the NameTag feature is embedded within the companion app.
The organization said that they verified the code through static analysis and claimed that Meta is advancing towards smart glasses that are capable of surveillance.
