Class action lawsuit against Meta for secret recording by Smart Glasses, as Australia considers banning them in public.
Australia is considering banning the use of smart glasses with built-in cameras in government workplaces Reuters reports, in a move that could be the first ban of its kind.
However, at the same time, “more than 70 people who bought, used or were recorded by Meta’s smart glasses have filed a lawsuit against the social media company,” the Los Angeles Times reports , “claiming that their personal and sensitive images were exposed to overseas workers who are paid to review and categorize photos and videos.”
External collaborators in Kenya work for companies that help train Meta’s AI, according to a draft of the class action lawsuit amended in late August. The users of the smart glasses — some of whom live in California — claim that the device recorded footage of them and their family members undressing, using the bathroom, having sex or typing passwords.
In some cases, people have said they were unaware that the glasses, which have cameras, were recording. A California user, identified as PL18 in the lawsuit, claims that his glasses were recording him without his knowledge after he had placed them on his bathroom counter. “He noticed that, from time to time, photos of his family members using the toilet or taking a bath began to appear in his photo gallery — footage that no member of the household had taken,” the lawsuit states…
The 230-page lawsuit was filed in federal court in Northern California and accuses Meta of fraud and misleading advertising, as well as violating other consumer protection laws in various states.
Tina Wolfson, one of the lawyers representing the plaintiffs, said the case also focuses on Meta's monitoring of people's lives without their consent, as well as the exploitation of their image and personal characteristics.
“People who bought these glasses, thinking they were cool tech accessories, didn’t know that every time they activated the artificial intelligence (AI), they were sending videos to train Meta’s AI system,” said Wolfson, an executive at the law firm Ahdoot & Wolfson in Burbank.
Meta, of course, denies the claims and intends to challenge them in court. “If you use Meta AI, we may review this data to help improve our products and user experience — a practice that many other companies also follow. We take steps to filter this data to remove personally identifiable information and protect user privacy,” a Meta spokesperson said…
The lawsuit alleges that users of the smart glasses unknowingly transmitted data to Meta every time they used Meta AI by saying “Hey Meta,” or sometimes accidentally when they adjusted the glasses. “Each activation of the AI features, whether intentional or accidental, records video and audio that is transmitted to Meta’s servers, routed overseas, and reviewed by low-wage workers, who monitor, tag, and incorporate those moments into Meta’s AI models,” the lawsuit states…
The lawsuit also seeks to block Meta from using biometric recognition tools through its glasses. The company is testing a controversial feature called “NameTag,” which would allow users to identify other people…
A separate lawsuit, filed in September in federal court in Illinois, alleges that Meta uses photos of people — posted to public accounts on Facebook and Instagram — to train the artificial intelligence that powers NameTag and other AI tools.
Although the press releases will range from very select to rare, I said I'd pass...because sometimes the editors hide.
