By Faustine Ngila *
As Meta rolls out its AI-powered Ray-Ban smart glasses, a Swedish investigation has revealed that subcontracted workers in Kenya were able to view deeply personal moments, including users in bathrooms and engaging in sexual activity, raising urgent questions about privacy, consent, and oversight. The UK Information Commissioner’s Office has said it will write to Meta to examine whether the company is meeting its obligations under data protection law, highlighting the tension between emerging AI technologies and the rights of individuals whose lives are being captured, sometimes without their knowledge, in the name of improving user experiences
The UK’s data protection authority is contacting Meta following a report claiming outsourced workers in Kenya were able to view sensitive content captured by the company’s AI-powered smart glasses.
Meta said subcontracted workers may sometimes review content, including images and videos, recorded by its AI smart glasses to improve the user experience.
According to an investigation by Swedish newspapers Svenska Dagbladet and Göteborgs-Posten, some of the reviewed footage included users in bathrooms or engaging in sexual activity. The review was carried out by a Kenya-based Meta subcontractor.
“We see everything – from living rooms to naked bodies,” one worker reportedly said.
Meta said it takes the protection of personal data seriously and is constantly refining its tools and efforts.
“Ray-Ban Meta glasses help you use AI, hands free, to answer questions about the world around you,” Meta told BBC News.
“When people share content with Meta AI, like other companies we sometimes use contractors to review this data to improve people’s experience with the glasses, as stated in our Privacy Policy,” the company added. “This data is first filtered to protect people’s privacy.”
Meta said filtering may include blurring faces, but sources told the Swedish newspapers that the system sometimes failed and faces were visible.
Users must activate recording manually or via voice command, but may not realize that humans sometimes review the videos, as described in Meta’s privacy policies and terms of service.
In response to a BBC request, Meta shared a link to its supplemental terms of service but did not identify which sections cover human review of content. Meta’s UK AI terms of service note: “In some cases Meta will review your interactions with AIs… and this review may be automated or manual (human).”
The UK Information Commissioner’s Office told BBC News: “Devices processing personal data, including smart glasses, should put users in control and provide for appropriate transparency. Service providers must clearly explain what data is collected and how it is used. The claims in this article are concerning. We will be writing to Meta to request information on how it is meeting its obligations under UK data protection law.”
The workers interviewed by the Swedish papers were data annotators employed by a Nairobi-based outsourcing firm called Sama. They manually labelled content to train Meta’s AI to interpret images and also reviewed transcripts of AI interactions to ensure accurate responses.
The workers said that their workplace had cameras everywhere and banned mobile phones, but they still viewed highly sensitive content, including recordings of people watching pornography. One worker said a man’s glasses recorded in a bedroom and later captured footage of a woman, apparently his wife, undressing.
Meta’s glasses include a recording light that illuminates when the camera is on. The company advises users to alert others when recording and avoid private spaces.
Meta unveiled the glasses, developed in partnership with Ray-Ban and Oakley, in September 2025. BBC News has reached out to EssilorLuxottica, the parent company of the glasses brands, for comment.
AI-powered wearable devices have expanded rapidly, offering features such as translating text or answering questions about the surrounding environment, which is particularly useful for people who are blind or partially sighted.
Concerns over misuse have grown as the devices became more popular. Women have told the BBC that they were filmed without consent by smart glasses users.
Sama, which began as a nonprofit providing tech employment, describes itself as an ethical B-corp. It previously faced criticism and legal action over content moderation work for tech firms. The company has since ceased content moderation services and said it regretted taking on that work.
