TL;DR: Meta is facing a class action lawsuit after Swedish newspapers revealed that contractors in Nairobi, Kenya viewed footage from Ray-Ban smart glasses that included people undressing, having sex, using toilets, and other intimate moments. Meta marketed these glasses as “designed for privacy, controlled by you.” The footage gets sent to contractors when users activate AI features, and there’s no way to opt out while still using the AI. Over 7 million people bought Meta’s smart glasses in 2025. The UK’s data watchdog is investigating.
What Swedish Journalists Found
On March 4, 2026, Swedish newspapers Svenska Dagbladet and Göteborgs-Posten published an investigation that should make every Meta smart glasses owner sick.
Data annotators working for Meta’s subcontractor Sama in Nairobi, Kenya, had been viewing footage captured through Ray-Ban Meta glasses. The content they saw:
- People using toilets
- People undressing
- Sexual activity
- Bank card information
- Private messages and chats
One contractor told the Swedish journalists: “In some videos you can see someone going to the toilet, or getting undressed. I don’t think they know, because if they knew they wouldn’t be recording.”
Another described the pressure to keep quiet: “You understand that it is someone’s private life you are looking at, but at the same time you are just expected to carry out the work. You are not supposed to question it. If you start asking questions, you are gone.”
How Your “Private” Footage Ends Up in Kenya
Meta claims footage stays on your device “unless users choose to share media they’ve captured with Meta or others.” Technically true. But here’s the catch:
If you want to use any of the AI features (the entire reason Meta is pushing these glasses) your footage gets sent to Meta’s servers. Ask the glasses to identify an object? Describe a scene? The video routes to human contractors.
Meta calls this “Live AI.” What they don’t tell you: those AI features require sending your footage through a pipeline of human reviewers who label objects in the video. It’s how machine learning models get trained. And those humans see everything.
Meta claims it blurs faces in the footage sent to contractors. Sources told the Swedish newspapers that the blurring “does not consistently work”, especially in low light. A former Meta employee confirmed the anonymization algorithms sometimes fail.
Data protection lawyer Kleanthi Sardeli put it bluntly: “Once the material has been fed into the models, the user in practice loses control over how it is used.”
The Class Action
On March 5, 2026, plaintiffs Gina Bartone of New Jersey and Mateo Canu of California filed a class action lawsuit against Meta in federal court in San Francisco. The Clarkson Law Firm is leading the case.
The lawsuit alleges Meta engaged in false advertising and violated privacy laws by:
- Marketing the glasses as “designed for privacy, controlled by you”
- Concealing the human review pipeline
- Failing to disclose that overseas contractors could view intimate footage
The complaint states the “undisclosed human review pipeline renders the Meta AI Glasses’ privacy features materially misleading, transforms the product from a personal device into a surveillance conduit, and exposes consumers to unreasonable risks of dignitary harm, emotional distress, stalking, extortion, identity theft, and reputational injury.”
Attorney Yana Hart didn’t mince words: “You cannot market a product as ‘built for privacy’ and then funnel footage of people’s intimate moments to contract workers without their knowledge.”
Managing partner Ryan Clarkson added: “That is not a technicality or an oversight: that is a system working exactly as designed.”
7 Million Walking Cameras
In 2025, over 7 million people bought Meta’s smart glasses. That’s 7 million devices capable of recording intimate moments and routing them to contractors in Kenya.
The glasses look like regular Ray-Bans. Unless you know what to look for, you won’t realize someone is recording you. Meta says there’s an LED indicator when recording, but it’s small and easy to miss.
This isn’t Meta’s first facial recognition and smart glasses controversy. Just weeks ago, we reported on Meta’s plan to add facial recognition to these same glasses through a feature called “Name Tag.” Internal documents showed the company planned to launch during political turmoil specifically because “civil society groups that we would expect to attack us would have their resources focused on other concerns.”
Now we know it’s worse than just facial recognition. The glasses are already sending footage of bathroom visits and bedroom activity to human reviewers. The face recognition feature would be the cherry on top of an already privacy-destroying sundae.
Meta’s Response: Two Months of Silence, Then Legalese
The Swedish journalists waited two months for a response from Meta. When it finally came, it was this:
“When live AI is being used, we process that media according to the Meta AI Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.”
That’s it. No acknowledgment of the intimate content. No explanation of why contractors are seeing sex and bathroom footage. Just a pointer to the fine print nobody reads.
A Meta spokesperson told Engadget that contractors “may handle data” but declined to address the lawsuit claims specifically.
The UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office has opened an investigation into the matter.
The Bigger Picture
Meta has a pattern. They paid $7 billion in settlements and fines for scanning faces on Facebook without consent. They deleted over 1 billion face templates after the Illinois biometric privacy lawsuit. They promised privacy.
Then they built glasses that send your most intimate moments to offshore contractors.
The lawsuit asks a simple question: if Meta knew human contractors would see this footage, why did they market the product as “designed for privacy”?
We know the answer. They knew. They just didn’t think you’d find out.
What You Can Do
If You Own Meta Smart Glasses
Disable Live AI and all multimodal features in the Meta View app. This is the only way to prevent footage from being sent to contractors. Unfortunately, it also disables most of the AI features Meta is selling you on. That’s the trade-off: useful AI or privacy. Meta didn’t tell you that part.
Return or Sell Your Glasses
If the footage pipeline isn’t something you can live with, get rid of the glasses. They’re recording devices that route to human reviewers. That’s not what the marketing implied.
Watch for Class Action Notifications
If you bought Meta smart glasses and used AI features, you may be eligible to join the class action. The Clarkson Law Firm is handling the case.
Spot Smart Glasses in the Wild
If someone is wearing glasses with a small camera near the hinge, they may be recording you. The app Nearby Glasses can detect Meta Ray-Bans via Bluetooth. Consider whether you want to be recorded by someone whose footage might end up with contractors in Kenya.
References
- TechCrunch: Meta Sued Over AI Smart Glasses’ Privacy Concerns, After Workers Reviewed Nudity, Sex, and Other Footage (March 5, 2026)
- Engadget: Meta Hit With a Class Action Lawsuit Over Smart Glasses’ Privacy Claims (March 5, 2026)
- Futurism: Why Meta Is Letting Its Workers Watch Users’ Intimate Videos From Ray-Ban Smart Glasses (March 5, 2026)
- Futurism: Meta Lied About Its Smart Glasses Protecting User Privacy, New Class Action Lawsuit Claims (March 6, 2026)
- Euronews: Meta Faces Privacy Lawsuit Over AI Smart Glasses (March 6, 2026)
- TechCabal: Kenyan Workers Say Meta Ray-Ban AI Glasses Expose Intimate Moments (March 4, 2026)
Published: March 9, 2026