Meta is confronting a new lawsuit that claims the company used footage captured by its Ray-Ban Meta Glasses to train artificial-intelligence models without adequate disclosure or consent. The complaint, first filed in California in March and amended in August, expands the scope to include people who never purchased the device but were recorded by it.
Allegations against Meta
The amended filing argues that even when a bystander notices the glasses and agrees to be recorded, they have not consented to the mass aggregation of their data when the device operates in AI mode. According to the complaint, visual recordings are collected, stored, exploited and inspected by persons overseas, with no effort made by the company to disclose these practices.
"Even if a bystander notices the Glasses and agrees to be recorded, he or she cannot have consented to the mass amalgamation of their data when the Glasses are in AI mode," the complaint states.
Ryan Clarkson, founder and managing partner of Clarkson Law Firm and co-lead counsel in the case, said:
"I think there is a huge push to improve AI tools by every corporation, especially the largest corporations in the world, and the way that they believe is the best way to improve their AI is to find more signal, to find more content, more recordings that they can feed into this machine, feeding the beast."
How the glasses work
The device blends cameras and microphones with a user's perception, allowing hands-free queries about what is seen, object identification, translation and photo or video capture. Meta's product page notes that a capture LED lights up when recording and that users can manage or delete media through the company's software.
Legal arguments
Plaintiffs contend that Meta's privacy assurances do not reflect the full reality. When AI features are activated, imagery and audio may be transmitted to Meta's servers for analysis and, the suit alleges, ultimately used to train the company's AI models. The complaint challenges Meta's claims that the glasses were designed for privacy and that users retain control over their data.
The case also references a February 2026 investigation by Swedish newspapers Svenska Dagbladet and Göteborgs-Posten. The reports, based on interviews with workers at Sama, a Kenya-based outsourcing firm that performed data-annotation for Meta, described reviewers seeing intimate footage, including people changing clothes, using bathrooms and engaging in private activities.
Meta's response
A Meta spokesperson told EuroHerald that the company disagrees with the allegations and will fight them. The statement said the glasses help users ask questions about the world around them and that, if users employ Meta AI, the data may be reviewed to improve products, a practice common among many technology firms. The spokesperson added that Meta takes steps to filter data to remove identifying information and protect privacy.
What lies ahead
The lawsuit is still in litigation, and the claims have not been proven in court. If the case proceeds, it could set precedent for how wearable AI devices handle bystander data and may prompt tighter regulatory scrutiny in Europe and beyond.