The UK’s data regulator, the Information Commissioner"s Office (ICO), will write to Meta, the firm behind Facebook and Instagram, to tell it of its concerns over reports that subcontractor workers were able to see sensitive content being filmed by the company’s smart glasses.
According to the social media giant, which has always been known for terrible privacy practices, subcontracted workers are used to review content and these happen to include films and images captured by its AI smart glasses. This content gets reviewed to improve the experience of the glasses, the company alleges.
According to an investigation by the Swedish newspapers Svenska Dagbladet (SvD) and Goteborgs-Posten (GP), it has been discovered that subcontractors in countries like Kenya, where wages are lower, are able to see the recorded videos, which sometimes include people using the toilet or having sex.
The subcontractors have signed confidentiality agreements before taking on the job and are monitored by cameras in the office and are not allowed to bring their own phones or any device that can record to work. Violating the agreements can lead to dismissal and living in poverty, so it acts somewhat as a deterrent to employees not to share what they’ve witnessed through the glasses.
Aside from capturing private moments, the subcontractors note that some of the time, people do not even realize the glasses are recording, but it is too late because Meta has the data to review. The workers also say they’ve seen people’s bank cards or seen them viewing porn while wearing the glasses, which could damage reputations if leaked.
The data annotators also deal with transcriptions where they check to see if the AI assistant in the glasses answers queries correctly. The queries to the AI aren’t just benign either; they can be about any topics including crimes or protests as well as “very dark things”. In one case that was recounted, the worker saw transcriptions where a man described a woman he wanted to have sex with saying that “he liked her breasts.”
According to the investigation, the journalists who tried out the glasses, said there is no real option to opt out of data collection if you want to use the AI features, and Meta warns that users shouldn’t share sensitive information.
The ICO told BBC News that it is concerned about what was uncovered by the investigation and insists that Meta should clearly explain to consumers what is collected and how it is used.