MEPs raise concerns over privacy of Meta's smart glasses

A group of MEPs have sent submitted a written question to the European Commission following reports that Meta's Ray-Ban smart glasses are recording users in intimate situations without their knowledge or consent. According to investigations by Swedish newspapers, these recordings were sent to a contractor in Kenya, called Sama, for artificial intelligence (AI) training purposes. Kenya currently holds third-country status under the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), despite ongoing negotiations with the Commission for a mutual adequacy agreement.

Sama employees, who act as data annotators, reported viewing images of individuals in private settings, such as changing clothes. Although Meta claims to use automated filtering and anonymisation tools, such as face blurring, contractors claim that these safeguards frequently fail. 

The MEPs have asked the Commission what actions will be taken alongside national data protection authorities (DPAs) to ensure Meta's compliance with the processing requirements under the GDPR. Furthermore, the lawmakers have asked the Commission to commit to conducting a comprehensive impact assessment of the potential privacy risks to EU citizens arising from the proposed changes in the Digital Omnibus package.

Training Announcement: Freevacy offers a range of independent data protection qualifications from IAPP and BCS. Our certified courses are available at foundation and practitioner levels and cover multiple legal jurisdictions, data protection operations management, and the implementation of complex privacy solutions in technical environments. Find out more.