Facebook-parent Meta wants to bring back technology it shut down 5 years ago

Five years after shutting down its facial recognition system on Facebook over privacy fears, Meta is preparing for a comeback, a report has said. The tech giant is said to be working to bring the technology back with a change – this time embedding it directly into the lenses of its popular Ray-Ban smart glasses.

According to a report by The New York Times, the feature is internally dubbed “Name Tag”, and it will allow glasses wearers to look at a person and instantly identify them. Moreover, they can also pull up information through Meta’s built-in AI assistant, the report noted, citing four people involved with the plans.The report, however, says that Meta’s plans may change. Citing an internal document, the company has been in talks how to release a feature that carries “safety and privacy risks”.

The company reportedly considered a “soft launch” at a conference for the blind to showcase the tool’s helpfulness before a wider release.

Launch timeline discussed in internal memos

The report also cites internal memos which suggest that the company is looking for a strategic window to release the feature with minimal backlash. “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,” the document from Meta’s Reality Labs, which works on hardware including smart glasses, was cited as saying.

Why Meta ‘killed’ facial recognition techIn 2021, Meta deleted the face-scan data of over a billion people, citing the need to find the “right balance” for a technology that sparked legal battles and public outcry. However, the commercial success of the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses has reportedly reignited the company’s ambitions.

The Privacy Debate Re-Ignited

The return of facial recognition on wearable devices has immediately set off alarm bells among privacy advocates.

Unlike a static camera in a store, smart glasses are mobile and often go unnoticed, threatening the "practical anonymity" of everyday life.What Meta has to say on technology’s resintroductionMeta has not yet committed to a specific launch date and insists it is proceeding with caution. “We’re building products that help millions of people connect and enrich their lives. While we frequently hear about the interest in this type of feature — and some products already exist in the market — we’re still thinking through options and will take a thoughtful approach if and before we roll anything out,” Meta said in a statement.