Breaking

Meta Strips Facial-Recognition Code From Smart Glasses App

June 14, 2026 at 14:10 EDT

Policy & Regulation
Security

Meta has fully removed the code for an unreleased facial-recognition system called "NameTag" that had been quietly embedded in its "Meta AI" companion app for smart glasses, doing so in the latest update following press scrutiny. The company has declined to comment on why it removed the code or whether the feature will return.

June 2026 · Meta AI · Smart Glasses

Meta Quietly Pulls Hidden Face-Recognition Code From Its Smart-Glasses App

An unreleased system internally named "NameTag" — built to detect, faceprint, and identify people seen through Ray-Ban and Oakley glasses — was found in code shipped to 50M+ devices, then almost entirely removed the day after it was reported.

50M+

devices already carrying the app where the code was distributed

on-device AI models: face detection, cropping, encoding

day between the public report and near-total code removal

Settlements paid over biometric-data handling

A long, costly history shadows the NameTag discovery — scale shown to size.

$2B+

Total biometric settlements

$1.4B

Paid to the state of Texas

How NameTag was designed to work

Detect & crop face

From the glasses' camera feed

→

Faceprint on device

Create & match a biometric signature locally

→

"Person recognized"

Alert + "Connections" to remember people met

Never enabled · no server transmission confirmed · researchers said it "could have been enabled with a single switch."

Seen as a win

Privacy advocates framed the removal as a victory driven by public pressure, praising Meta's swift response after the code came to light.

Lingering concern

Critics cite the gap between Meta's "under consideration" framing and actual distribution, plus risks of public identification, stalking, and a quiet revival.

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