Texas probing Meta Glasses, Disney being sued for allegedly using facial recognition at its parks
Meta subcontractors in Kenya monitoring Texans' movements, the state charges
The eyes of Texas are trained on Meta Glasses, and they don’t like what they see. The state, represented by Attorney General Ken Paxton, has launched an investigation into the rather bulky AI glasses, expressing fears that Texans’ privacy may be at stake.
“I will continue to relentlessly stand up to any company that threatens the privacy and safety of Texans,” said Paxton in a news release. “Meta’s glasses raise serious concerns, and my office will thoroughly investigate these devices to ensure that no individual is being unlawfully recorded, tracked, or subjected to the unauthorized collection of their data.”
Meta Glasses are smart glasses equipped with cameras, speakers, and other communication tools. Many wearers say they use them mostly to answer and make telephone calls, monitor text messages and read the fine print on packages and documents.
The glasses enable wearers to capture and share audio and video data from around them. Meta’s privacy policy notes that its smart glasses have an “always enabled” mode which permits the device to constantly process video data for use with Meta AI products.
Although Meta advertises its glasses as “designed for privacy” and claims that it takes steps to protect private and key identifiable information, serious concerns have arisen, according to Paxton. Individuals at Meta’s subcontractor Sama, located in Kenya, access consumers private information despite Meta’s privacy representations. Sama’s data annotators have claimed that they have access to video material of users’ private moments, such as bathroom visits and other private moments.
In addition to these concerns, reporting from the New York Times indicates that Meta plans to bring facial recognition technology to the Meta Glasses. Internally code-named “Name Tag,” this feature would allow Meta to collect unsuspecting individuals’ facial geometry from Meta Glasses’ built-in, inconspicuous cameras.
In July of 2024, Paxton secured a $1.4 billion settlement with Meta over its unlawful facial recognition technology software in its applications. Now, Paxton has issued a Civil Investigative Demand (“CID”) to the company to investigate and determine whether Meta deceptively misrepresents the extent of its use of private data from consumers in violation of Texas law.
Magic Kingdom snoops on visitors, lawsuit claims
In another privacy-centered case, Disney has been sued for deploying facial recognition technology at park entrances to verify tickets.
A class action accuses the entertainment giant of violating privacy, competition and consumer protection laws by implementing the technology at Disneyland, where photographs of guests’ faces are taken and compared with images when they first used the ticket or annual pass, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The company “does not adequately disclose the use of their biometric collection, so consumers – which almost always include children – have no idea that Disney is collecting this highly sensitive data,” reads the complaint, filed in California federal court on Friday.