Meta's Smart Glasses Linked to Spyware Firm

Meta has been testing face-recognition software developed by Rank One Computing, a company known for selling surveillance technology to police departments and the U.S. military. This exploration into integrating facial recognition into Meta's smart glasses is detailed in a software license obtained by WIRED. Rank One Computing, founded in 2015, derives a significant portion of its revenue from government clients, including the U.S. Marshals Service and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service.

The license obtained by Meta reportedly authorizes the use of Rank One's face recognition and liveness detection capabilities, supporting up to 10 million facial templates. Although remnants of this integration were found in a version of Meta's AI app shipped to consumers, the face-recognition systems themselves were not active for users and were later deleted. Meta has declined to comment on the specifics of its relationship with Rank One.

Rank One's leadership includes former high-ranking officials from the FBI and CIA, and its technology is already in use by various law enforcement agencies. The company's algorithms are embedded in products sold by other firms, making their way into police investigative tools. Notably, Rank One's technology has shown demographic disparities in testing, with differing error rates based on sex and country of birth.

This development highlights a trend where technologies originally developed for military and intelligence purposes are increasingly becoming available for consumer products. The accessibility of such powerful facial recognition tools for mass-market devices raises significant privacy concerns, especially given the limited national regulations governing their use in the U.S.