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Meta has embedded a dormant facial recognition system, called NameTag, in its AI companion app for Ray-Ban and Oakley smart glasses. The feature is inactive but raises privacy and surveillance concerns.

Meta has quietly embedded code for an unreleased facial recognition feature in its Meta AI companion app for smart glasses, according to a new report. The feature appears in the app’s code but is not currently enabled or exposed to users. Wired found that the dormant system, referred to in the code as “NameTag,” can capture and process people’s faces using Meta branded smart glasses and later notify the wearer when a recognized face appears. Although the feature doesn’t send biometric data to Meta’s servers or run on user devices yet, past versions of the app showed interface elements suggesting how it might work. The code implies that faces captured by the glasses could be stored and compared to previously captured faces, notifying the wearer when a match occurs. Meta spokesperson Ryan Daniels stressed to Engadget that the company is “exploring these types of features” and that “nothing has shipped to consumers and no final decision has been made on what to do here, if anything.” Meta also insisted it is not building a centralized face database as part of this work. The discovery adds to ongoing questions about how Meta may utilize biometric technology in future wearable products.