Meta exposes nude video from AI glasses to workers, lawsuit alleges

Meta’s AI glasses were a breakout hit of 2025, with more than 7 million pairs sold. But the Bay Area tech giant now faces disconcerting allegations about the footage recorded by the devices’ cameras.

The company pitches its glasses, with their small cameras that have raised some privacy concerns, as safe: “Designed for privacy, controlled by you.” In late February, the Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet, or SvD, published an investigation that said Kenyan subcontractors end up seeing deeply personal footage from the glasses — including bank cards, people changing and people having sex. A new federal lawsuit filed in San Francisco on Wednesday points to the article and accuses Meta of false advertising, fraud and breach of contract.

“Consumers purchased these Glasses believing Meta’s privacy assurances,” the complaint says. “They did not, and could not reasonably, understand that their bedrooms, bathrooms, families, bodies, and more would be exposed to strangers around the world.”

Meta is still analyzing the lawsuit and did not answer SFGATE’s specific questions about why private video might end up at data labeling offices in Kenya. Spokesperson Chris Sgro told SFGATE, “Unless users choose to share media they’ve captured with Meta or others, that media stays on the user’s device.”

“When people share content with Meta AI, we sometimes use contractors to review this data for the purpose of improving people’s experience, as many other companies do,” Sgro’s statement continued. “We take steps to filter this data to protect people’s privacy and to help prevent identifying information from being reviewed.”

It isn’t totally clear what it means to “share content” with Meta; a Terms of Service document says, “In some cases, Meta will review your interactions with AIs, including the content of your conversations with or messages to AIs, and this review may be automated or manual (human).”

SvD’s article noted that when reporters bought the glasses and attempted to use their AI tool without internet connection, the AI wouldn’t work; then, when they turned on internet connection, their phone made contact with multiple Meta servers. The lawsuit assumes this means the footage will then go on to the data labeling offices, using this as an argument that a “central function” of the glasses is not private.

The Swedish newspaper story was a collaboration among SvD, the newspaper Göteborgs-Posten and Kenyan freelancer Naipanoi Lepapa. They relied on interviews with 30 employees of Meta contractor Sama in Nairobi, some of whom label images to help train AI, as well as supporting documents and interviews with former U.S. Meta workers.

The data labelers in Kenya described seeing footage of people naked, watching porn, and talking about crimes and protests. Faces are often blurred, the story said, but sometimes are visible, depending on the lighting. One annotator told the reporters: “You think that if they knew about the extent of the data collection, no one would dare to use the glasses.”

That’s part of the argument the plaintiffs make in their new lawsuit, which is seeking class-action certification. The complaint asks for an injunction against Meta’s current advertising methods, as well as punitive damages.

Work at a Bay Area tech company and want to talk? Contact tech reporter Stephen Council securely at stephen.council@sfgate.com or on Signal at 628-204-5452.