Workers in Nairobi, Kenya, are watching private footage captured by Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses, including people undressing, using bathrooms, and in bed, according to an investigation by Swedish newspapers that raises questions about what users actually consent to when wearing the devices.
Swedish newspapers Svenska Dagbladet and Göteborgs-Posten sent journalists to Kenya, where they interviewed workers employed by Sama, a data annotation subcontractor hired by Meta to help train its AI systems. What those workers described reveals a massive privacy gap between what users believe they’re recording and what strangers are viewing. “We see everything, from living rooms to naked bodies,” one Nairobi-based worker said. “Meta has that type of content in its databases. People can record themselves in the wrong way and not even know what they are recording. They are real people like you and me.”
“Unless users choose to share media they’ve captured with Meta or others, that media stays on the user’s device,” a Meta spokesperson said in a statement. “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. We take steps to filter this data to protect people’s privacy and to help prevent identifying information from being reviewed.”
Meta said it contacted Sama, which confirmed it “is not aware of any workflows where sexual or objectionable content is present, or where faces or sensitive content are continually unblurred.” Meta said it will continue to investigate. The company added that its terms of service require users to comply with all laws and use the glasses safely, and pointed to the glasses’ built-in LED light as a signal to bystanders when content is being captured.
Workers described a steady stream of deeply private footage captured by unsuspecting glasses wearers in Western homes: people walking out of bathrooms naked, couples in bed, users watching pornography while wearing the glasses, bank cards accidentally filmed, text conversations covering crimes, personal secrets, and explicit sexual commentary. One worker recounted a man setting his glasses on a nightstand, then his partner walking into the frame and undressing, completely unaware she was being recorded and watched by a stranger thousands of miles away.
“In some videos, you can see someone going to the toilet, or getting undressed,” another worker said. “I don’t think they know, because if they knew they wouldn’t be recording.” The workers operate under strict non-disclosure agreements. Offices are monitored by security cameras, and personal phones are banned. “You understand that it is someone’s private life you are looking at, but at the same time, you are just expected to carry out the work,” one employee said. “You are not supposed to question it. If you start asking questions, you are gone.”
