Cybersecurity Policy Report, Senators Ask Meta About Smart Glasses Being Used to Record ‘Private Situations’, (Oct 29, 2026)
Meta Platforms, Inc.’s smart glasses are invading the privacy of individuals by recording people in “private situations,” which is compounded by Meta’s use of images collected by the glasses for AI (artificial intelligence) training, according to Sens. Ron Wyden (D., Ore.) and Ed Markey (D., Mass.).
“Meta’s smart glasses have increasingly been implicated in disturbing invasions of users’ and bystanders’ privacy,” the senators said in a letter sent yesterday to Meta Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg.
“In October 2025, 404 Media documented men secretly filming women while soliciting sexual services and distributing the recordings via Instagram to millions of views. The BBC also documented women covertly filmed by wearers of Meta’s glasses for social media content and subjected to sexual harassment, including one woman whose phone number was published online along with the footage captured,” they noted.
“More recently, contractors working on Meta’s AI systems reported reviewing footage captured by Meta glasses depicting individuals undressing, using the bathroom, and engaging in sexual activity, sometimes apparently without the knowledge of the people depicted,” they said.
“Meta’s own disclosures confirm that imagery processed through its glasses’ visual AI features may be retained and used to train AI systems, including with the assistance of human reviewers. Using intimate imagery for AI development is itself an invasion of privacy when the people depicted have not consented to that use,” the senators told Mr. Zuckerberg.
“Retaining that material for AI development, thereby extending the period during which it can be accessed, disclosed, or misused, exploits people’s highly sensitive information for Meta’s commercial benefit,” they added.
“That disclosure and processing is an invasion of privacy, regardless of whether the footage is subsequently published or misused. Although Meta recently introduced an option for wearers to prevent the retention of visual data for AI training, individuals captured without their consent have no corresponding control over the processing of their images or data,” they said.
“Although Meta identified risks to bystander privacy and vulnerable populations before launching its glasses in 2021, it nevertheless launched a product tailor-made for invading the privacy of its users and bystanders. Meta’s professed commitment to privacy and preventing intimate image abuse rings hollow if the company cannot demonstrate meaningful steps to prevent its own products and practices from facilitating those harms,” they said.
Sens. Wyden and Markey asked Mr. Zuckerberg to respond to their letter by Nov. 25 with information about Meta’s internal analyses of the privacy risks related to the company’s smart glasses, the purposes for which it uses images collected by the glasses, and whether “device owners and people whose images the glasses capture” can request “deletion of biometric and other data captured by its glasses.”
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