As a community of women, survivors of sexual abuse, and allies, we are terrified by Meta’s plan to add facial recognition technology to its smart glasses. This concern is not hypothetical: according to recent WIRED reporting, Meta quietly embedded a face-recognition system (also known as “NameTag”) into a Meta Glasses app installed on more than 50 million phones before quietly pulling it on June 8, 2026 after reporting went public.
The negative privacy implications of NameTag or a similar facial recognition integration into Meta glasses are staggering, particularly for women, children, and LGBTQ+ people. From abusers using the glasses as a tool to identify and stalk victims (including children), to ex partners using the glasses to capture sexual acts that could be used for revenge porn, to adversaries using the glasses to track someone’s personal healthcare activities, we are horrified by the many ways in which facial recognition integrated with Meta glasses would jeopardize our safety. Already, we are concerned about the risks that AI glasses pose to our right to privacy and anonymity. The integration of facial recognition technology would skyrocket those risks.
Unequivocally, we believe any potential benefits of facial recognition in Meta glasses are significantly outweighed by the risks to women and children, particularly given that researchers have demonstrated how easily facial recognition technology in the glasses could be hacked using third-party facial recognition software to identify anybody, including children.
We do not want facial recognition technology in Meta glasses, and we are appalled that in leaked documents, Meta leadership explicitly said, "We will launch during a dynamic political environment where many civil society groups that we would expect to attack us would have their resources focused on other concerns." Know that we are paying very, very close attention. It is incumbent on you, Meta leadership and Kylie Jenner to disavow the integration of facial recognition technology into smart glasses in the wake of your product launch and the very real fears it has stirred up.