Meta's AI Glasses Caught Sending Private Footage to Kenyan Reviewers

An investigation by two prominent Swedish newspapers, Svenska Dagbladet and Göteborgs-Posten, has revealed that Nairobi-based contractors are reviewing highly sensitive footage captured by Meta’s AI-powered smart glasses. This content reportedly includes private moments such as bathroom visits, instances of nudity, and other intimate scenes, suggesting that personal recordings from these devices may be accessible to human reviewers in Kenya.

In response to Svenska Dagbladet’s reporting, at least one proposed class action lawsuit has been initiated, accusing Meta of violating false advertising and privacy laws. The lawsuit specifically challenges Meta’s assertions that its smart glasses are designed with user privacy in mind, stating: "By affirmatively claiming that the Glasses were designed to protect privacy, Meta assumed a duty to disclose material facts that would inform a reasonable consumer’s decision to purchase the product. Instead, Meta hid the alarming reality: that use of the AI features results in a stranger halfway around the world watching the most private moments of a person’s life."

The Nairobi-based contractors interviewed by Svenska Dagbladet are identified as AI annotators, whose primary role involves labeling diverse data—including images, text, and audio—to facilitate the training and improvement of AI systems. One worker reportedly disclosed to Svenska Dagbladet, "We see everything — from living rooms to naked bodies. Meta has that type of content in its databases."

While a former Meta employee reportedly indicated to Svenska Dagbladet that faces within annotation data are automatically blurred, workers in Kenya contend that this process "does not always work as intended," leading to some faces remaining visible. Furthermore, another individual reportedly shared with the outlet that users’ bank cards are occasionally discernible in the footage they analyze.

Meta’s smart glasses, developed in collaboration with Ray-Ban and Oakley, feature an integrated AI assistant capable of responding to user queries about their visual environment. These camera-equipped glasses have experienced a significant surge in popularity in recent years, notwithstanding escalating concerns surrounding privacy and surveillance.

EssilorLuxottica, the eyewear titan collaborating with Meta on these devices, reported selling over 7 million AI-powered glasses in 2025, a figure that more than tripled its combined sales from 2023 and 2024. Last year, Meta also revised its privacy policy, making Meta AI with camera use enabled on the glasses a default setting unless actively disabled by turning off "Hey Meta." Additionally, the company removed the option for wearers to opt out of storing their voice recordings in the cloud.

Svenska Dagbladet also reported that the Kenya-based AI reviewers contribute to transcribing audio, ensuring the Meta AI assistant provides accurate responses to users’ verbal questions. In a statement provided to The Verge, Meta spokesperson Tracy Clayton affirmed that media captured by its smart glasses "stays on the user’s device" unless the user explicitly chooses to share it with others or with Meta. Clayton further explained, "When people share content with Meta AI, we sometimes use contractors to review this data for the purpose of improving people’s experience, as many other companies do. We take steps to filter this data to protect people’s privacy and to help prevent identifying information from being reviewed."

The UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office has already initiated inquiries with Meta regarding the claims presented in Svenska Dagbladet’s report. Privacy advocates have also voiced significant apprehension about Meta’s alleged intentions to integrate facial recognition capabilities into its smart glasses, with the Electronic Privacy Information Center notably describing such a development as a "grave risk to privacy, safety, and civil liberties."