--- title: "Years After Promising to Stop Facial Recognition Work, Meta Has a Devious New Plan" description: "Meta quietly restarted efforts to infuse facial recognition into its smart glasses, according to a report from The Information." date: "2025-05-09" modified: "2025-05-09" authors: - name: "Maggie Harrison Dupré" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/mharrison" url: "https://futurism.com/facial-recognition-meta-plan" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "Facial recognition" - "Meta" tags: - "facial recognition" - "Meta" - "smart glasses" --- # Years After Promising to Stop Facial Recognition Work, Meta Has a Devious New Plan ![Meta quietly restarted efforts to infuse facial recognition into its smart glasses, according to a report from The Information.]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* In 2021, Facebook said it was scrapping efforts to build powerful facial recognition software into its then-nascent smart glasses, citing the tech's glaring privacy and ethics concerns. Four years later, [as *The Information*]() reports, the Silicon Valley behemoth has officially dusted off the effort and is once again working on transforming its wearable smart glasses into a facial recognition-infused privacy nightmare. Meta is working on a feature internally referred to as "super sensing." In super sensing mode, the glasses' built-in cameras and sensors will remain on and recording throughout the wearer's day. It's still probably a way's off due to battery life limitations, but in Meta's imagining, it'll one day be able to do things like remind someone to drop by the store and get dinner ingredients or nudge them to grab their keys. (Because, of course, every Silicon Valley CEO really just wants to build [J.A.R.V.I.S.]() from the "Iron Man" franchise.) However, the super sensing feature would also combine AI with facial recognition, according to the *Information* — a design choice that could have far-reaching and deeply alarming implications. Infusing facial recognition and AI into smart glasses could help you look up the LinkedIn heads you ran into at a networking event, or keep track of your roommates or family. Which — while annoying and creepy — are arguably a bit more mundane in the grand scheme of facial recognition applications. But the nightmare scenarios are endless. A wearer could dox strangers on the street; a creep in a bar could look up the name and personal information of a woman who may or may not have wanted to talk to him; undercover law enforcement officials could go to a peaceful protest and keep a careful record of attendees. It's not exactly hard to come up with ways this could go wrong, fast — and yet Meta, it seems, has decided to push forward. According to the report, Meta's renewed facial recognition efforts are due in part to a more [surveillance-friendly political climate]() where privacy concerns are increasingly taking a backseat in corporate and federal government decision-making. "The pendulum swings from one side to the other," Rob Leathern, a privacy expert and former product manager at Facebook and Google, told *The Information*. "We're kind of on that swing where some of the things that companies like Google talked about two, three, four years ago aren’t necessarily being seen as quite as important." **More on Meta's smart glasses and facial recognition:** [*Terrifying Smart Glasses Hack Can Pull Up Personal Info of Nearby Strangers in Seconds*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've reported extensively on the rise of AI as a cultural and business force shaping the media industry, and more broadly how those dynamics are changing how we all consume and share information and relate to one another. I'm also fascinated by public health policy and ethics, the role of emerging tech in politics and governance — and the powerful people and forces at those intersections — climate change, and the environment. My investigation on Sports Illustrated's use of AI-generated authors with fictional biographies won a 2024 Mirror Award for "Best Story on Media Coverage of Artificial Intelligence in Journalism and the Media" from Syracuse University's SI Newhouse School, I contributed to Niemen Lab's 2025 Predictions for Journalism series, and I've discussed my work for Futurism during appearances on NPR, CNN, the BBC, the CBC, and more. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I played Division I field hockey for the Minutewomen as a midfielder. Since then, I've lived in New Orleans, Louisiana and Manhattan, New York. I spend my free time running, reading, perusing archival fashion, and searching for the world’s best negroni. I also have a debonair tuxedo cat, Westley, who's named after "The Princess Bride." ### Author social links [Bluesky]()