Meta strips facial recognition code from smart glasses app days after WIRED exposes NameTag
Executives initially denied the feature’s existence, while privacy advocates cite the incident as urgent proof for stronger consumer data protection laws.
Meta has released an update to its Meta AI companion app for smart glasses that removes facial recognition software components, one day after WIRED revealed the presence of the unreleased system. The update strips out code libraries explicitly named for face recognition, the software that powered the internal NameTag process, and the alert mechanism that would have notified users when a face was identified. The system had been embedded in the app installed on more than 50 million phones, where it was designed to convert captured faces into biometric signatures and compare them against a local database.
The latest version of the app also removes the folder where the software would have stored cropped images and biometric signatures of faces it failed to recognise. WIRED analysis found that faces the system could not identify were previously cropped, indexed, and stored locally for future processing. While nearly all traces of the feature have been excised, fragments remain in the current build, including an internal debug menu label and a dormant link intended to open a recognised person’s profile.
Prior to the update, Meta executives dismissed the reporting as misleading. Andy Stone, the company’s vice president of communications, stated that the feature was purely exploratory and claimed it did not exist, while chief technology officer Andrew Bosworth described the reporting as dishonest. Meta declined to explain why the code was removed or whether the changes were planned before the story was published, and did not confirm if the system would be reinstated.
The company also failed to respond to questions regarding whether a database of face profiles had already been created, how long the app retains photographs and biometric data, or whether that data would be sent back to Meta’s servers. WIRED noted that a memo reportedly described releasing the feature during a “dynamic political environment” when privacy and civil liberties advocates would be distracted, and it remained unclear if the system was being built specifically for blind or low-vision users or if users could opt in or out.
Privacy advocates have cited the incident as evidence for stronger consumer data protection laws. Kade Crockford of the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts argued that the removal did not undo the decision to ship the code and urged state lawmakers to enact privacy bills with strong enforcement provisions. Crockford pointed to the Massachusetts House of Representatives’ recent passage of a consumer privacy bill with a private right of action as a model for other jurisdictions to follow.
