Meta is putting former CIA and FBI agents in charge of your face

The internal documents contain very concerning notions such as the suggestion that the current “dynamic political environment” could distract potential critics of the feature.

Last month Wired found lines of code inside the Meta companion app for the Ray-Ban Meta glasses, designed to identify people via biometric data stored on users’ phones.

Now another piece of the puzzle falls in place. Meta reportedly reached out to Rank One Computing for the company's expertise in facial recognition.

Meta reacts with a strong pushback

Meta reacted with a bunch of official statements, mainly on X. Company representative Ryan Daniels told WIRED that these findings are "merely evidence" that Meta is toying with the idea, and "nothing has shipped to consumers and no final decision has been made."

Meanwhile, Andy Stone, Vice President of Communications at Meta, accused Wired of hiding information and cherry-picking what to share with the audience.

Here's Stone's full post on X:

Should we be worried?

Well, on one hand I want to be objective and abstain from meaningless hate or negativity toward Meta. But on the other hand, these reports are piling up, and they don't paint a very pretty picture.

Granted, Meta says there are no indications or proof that the company will use the face recognition system in the end. But what would've happened if The New York Times or Wired hadn't uncovered the existence of the feature in the first place?

It might sound a bit cynical, but Meta has been involved in shady practices tied to users' privacy and data for quite some time, and hiring former FBI and CIA experts to develop face recognition tech isn't reassuring. It's a huge red flag, at least for me.

What do you think about all this? Would you use such a feature on a pair of smart glasses?