Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, PRIVACY NEWS: Texas investigating Meta over privacy concerns regarding ‘smart’ glasses, (May 26, 2026)

By Tony Foley, TR Daily

The facial recognition feature poses serious privacy concerns, AG Ken Paxton said.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R.) has launched an investigation into Meta Platforms, Inc.’s “smart” glasses amid concerns over Meta’s privacy representations and the capabilities of the glasses to expose the private data of Texas residents. In a press release, AG Paxton explained that Meta smart glasses were equipped with cameras, speakers, and other communication tools that enabled wearers to capture and share audio and video from their surroundings.

Meta Glasses are smart glasses equipped with cameras, speakers, and other communication tools. The glasses enable its wearers to capture and share audio and video data from around them.

Meta’s privacy policy notes that the glasses have an “always enabled” mode permitting the device to constantly process video data for use with Meta’s AI (artificial intelligence) products, AG Paxton said.

They have a small light that activates when a device is recording audio and video, but AG Paxton maintained that the indicator was easily hidden and inactive in “always enabled” mode.

AG Paxton cited concerns that individuals at Samasource Impact Sourcing, Inc., a Meta subcontractor with an office in Kenya, were able to access the private information of consumers despite the privacy representations made by Meta, claiming that they had access to video material of users’ private moments, including bathroom visits. While faces appearing in such data are supposed to be automatically blurred, one employee noted that this does not always happen. Finally, AG Paxton cited a New York Times report indicating that Meta intended to bring facial recognition technology to its smart glasses, which he said would allow the company to collect the facial geometry of unsuspecting individuals.

“I will continue to relentlessly stand up to any company that threatens the privacy and safety of Texans,” AG Paxton said. “Meta’s glasses raise serious concerns, and my office will thoroughly investigate these devices to ensure that no individual is being unlawfully recorded, tracked, or subjected to the unauthorized collection of their data.”

Consumer group’s concerns. In February, the Electronic Privacy Information Center sent letters to the FTC and nine attorneys general urging them to block the facial recognition feature of Meta’s smart classes. A facial recognition feature that links to information about an individual likely would violate the FTC Act, the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, and privacy obligations Meta agreed to as part of an FTC consent decree, it said. The glasses “allow unsuspecting—and unconsenting—members of the public to be covertly recorded, with no warning except for a small (and easily circumvented) LED light,” EPIC said.“ Meta has also been increasingly aggressive in its collection, storage, and use of media recorded by the glasses. Just last year, it updated its terms to store audio recorded by the glasses in the cloud and use it to train AI, with no option for consumers to opt out,” it added.“ Even if Meta limits whose identity it reveals to individual wearers of its Ray-Ban Meta glasses, its use of facial recognition may still allow Meta itself to engage in mass tracking of unknowing members of the public,” it said.

Companies: Meta Platforms, Inc.; Samasource Impact Sourcing, Inc.

News: Privacy TexasNews