Meta is removing facial recognition from its smart glasses app after a WIRED report

After one day WIRED revealed Which dead It was quietly included unreleased Face recognition The system was in an app installed on more than 50 million phones, which the company removed, according to a WIRED analysis of the latest release code.

The latest version of Meta AI, a companion app for its line Smart glassesremoves inactive software components that run the Meta System internally called NameTag. The version published the day of the WIRED report included several code libraries named explicitly for facial recognition. Friday’s edition doesn’t include any of them.

On Thursday, WIRED reported that Meta has quietly integrated large parts of its NameTag system into its Meta AI app. Although not publicly activated, the feature is designed to convert faces captured by the glasses into unique biometric signatures, commonly known as faceprints, and compare them to a database of faceprints stored on the user’s device. WIRED also found that faces that the system failed to recognize were cropped, indexed and stored locally for future processing.

NameTag debuted in February, when New York TimesCiting internal Meta documents, it stated that the company is developing a facial recognition feature for its smart glasses and is weighing launching it as soon as this year. One memo reportedly described its launch during a “dynamic political environment,” when privacy and civil liberties advocates are distracted. Last week, WIRED reported that many of the NameTag machines are already integrated into the Meta AI app, and have been downloaded by millions of users, as early as January, though Meta has publicly said it has not made a final decision on facial recognition.

After WIRED’s report, Meta’s vice president of communications, Andy Stone, dismissed the findings, writing that the company couldn’t answer questions about how the system worked because “the feature doesn’t exist.” Andrew Bosworth, Meta’s chief technology officer, called the reports “incredibly misleading” and “completely dishonest.”

Meta declined to answer 10 questions posed by WIRED before publication on Thursday, including whether it has already created a database of facial profiles used by NameTag, how long the app keeps photos and biometric data of unknown people stored on a user’s device, and whether that data will be sent back to Meta’s servers.

Additionally, Meta did not say whether it was building the tool for blind or visually impaired users, and did not respond to criticism from privacy advocates who warned that the system could allow stalkers and attackers to identify strangers in public places. It did not respond when asked whether it planned to allow users to opt in or out of the system.

Reached for comment Monday, Stone said Meta had nothing new to add.

The newly released version of Meta AI removes almost all traces of the feature that Meta said doesn’t exist yet. The facial recognition software itself is gone, along with the code that triggered the NameTag recognition process and the “person recognition” alert the app would show if someone was recognized. The update also removes the folder where the app was supposed to store cropped photos and biometric signatures of faces it captured but was unable to recognize.

Meta did not immediately respond to questions about why the code was removed, whether the changes were planned before the WIRED story was published, or whether the company still intends to pursue NameTag.

A few parts of the NameTag system remain in the latest Meta AI release, including the internal debug menu label and a dedicated passive link to open a known person’s profile. Residual code indicates parts of the system that no longer exist.