Meta’s AI-powered smart glasses may be transmitting sensitive footage to human judges in Nairobi, Kenya, according to an investigation by a Swedish news outlet. Svenska Dagblade and Gothenburg – Posten. The report, released last week, claims that Kenyan meth contractors watched videos showing “toilet visits, sex, and other intimate moments” filmed with smart glasses.
So far, at least one proposed class action lawsuit has surfaced, accusing Meta of violating false advertising and privacy laws. Svenska DagbladeThe report cites the company’s claim that its smart glasses are designed with privacy in mind.
By affirmatively claiming that the glasses are designed to protect privacy, Meta assumed a duty to disclose material facts that would inform a reasonable consumer’s product purchase decision. Instead, the meta hid a worrying reality. AI capabilities could allow a stranger halfway around the world to monitor your most private moments.
Nairobi contractor interviewed Svenska Dagblade AI annotator refers to labeling images, text, or audio with the purpose of helping an AI system understand the data it is training on. “We see everything from living rooms to nudity,” said one worker. Svenska Dagblade. “Meta’s database has that type of content.”
A former Meta employee said: Svenska Dagblade Faces in the annotation data are automatically blurred, but the Kenyan worker said this “doesn’t always work as intended” and some faces are still visible. Another source reportedly told the outlet that the wearer’s bank card can also be seen in the review footage.
Meta’s Ray-Ban and Oakley smart glasses have built-in AI assistants that can answer questions about what users can see. The glasses’ popularity has soared in recent years, despite growing concerns about privacy and surveillance.
EssilorLuxottica, the glasses giant that Meta works with to develop camera-equipped glasses, sold more than 7 million AI-powered glasses in 2025. This is more than three times the combined sales of 2023 and 2024. Last year, Meta made some changes to its privacy policy to enable Meta AI’s camera use in glasses “unless you turn off ‘Hey Meta.'” We also stopped allowing wearers to opt out of having their voice recordings saved to the cloud.
According to reports Svenska Dagbladea Kenya-based AI reviewer, also performs transcription, ensuring that Meta AI provides the correct answers to questions asked aloud by users. in a statement to The VergeMeta spokeswoman Tracy Clayton said media captured by the company’s smart glasses “remains on your device” unless you choose to share it with others or with Meta.
“When people share content with Meta AI, we sometimes use contractors to review this data with the goal of improving people’s experience, as many other companies do,” Clayton says. “We take steps to filter this data to protect people’s privacy and prevent their personal information from being reviewed.”
