Meta is reportedly preparing a return to controversial facial recognition technology, this time integrating it directly into its line of smart glasses. According to a report from The New York Times, the company is developing a feature internally codenamed “Name Tag” that would allow wearers of Meta-powered Ray-Ban or Oakley glasses to identify individuals and access information about them in real time using AI.
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This development marks a significant pivot for Mark Zuckerberg’s company, which famously shuttered its Facebook Face Recognition system in 2021 following intense public and regulatory backlash. While the company recently revived the tech for the narrow purpose of detecting “celeb-bait” scam ads, “Name Tag” represents a much broader application of the software in public spaces.
The internal deliberations at Meta’s Reality Labs suggest a calculated approach to the rollout. An internal memo viewed by the NYT indicated that Meta leadership views the current U.S. political landscape as an opportune moment to launch, theorizing that civil society groups—which would typically oppose such features—may be too distracted by other political concerns to mount a full-scale campaign against the tech.
Meta has reportedly been cautious with the feature’s debut. The company allegedly scrapped plans to demonstrate Name Tag at a conference for the blind last year and excluded it from the initial 2023 launch of its smart glasses to avoid early scrutiny.
To mitigate the inevitable privacy risks, Meta is reportedly weighing several options for how the system will function:
- Network Identification: The glasses might only identify people the wearer is already connected to via Facebook or Instagram.
- Public Data: The system could potentially display information exclusively from public Instagram accounts.
- Universal Search: Sources clarified that “universal” facial recognition—which would allow a wearer to identify any random stranger on the street—is currently not being considered as a viable feature.
The push for facial recognition comes as the smart glasses market heats up, with Meta facing growing competition from hardware developed by rivals like OpenAI. Meta appears to believe that AI-assisted person identification would provide a unique selling point that distinguishes its wearables from the rest of the market.
Despite its past retreat from facial recognition, Meta’s recent expansion of AI tools into the UK, Europe, and South Korea suggests the company is becoming more confident in its ability to navigate international privacy laws while deploying its most sensitive technologies.
