Meta’s commitment to user privacy has come under intensified examination following a Swedish report revealing that workers at a Meta subcontractor have been exposed to sensitive footage captured by Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses. These employees reportedly belong to Sama, a Kenya-based company responsible for data annotation services for Ray-Ban Meta.
The report, released in February and a collaboration between Swedish newspapers Svenska Dagbladet and Göteborgs-Posten along with Kenya-based freelance journalist Naipanoi Lepapa, draws on interviews conducted with over 30 Sama employees at various levels. These individuals work on video, image, and speech annotation for Meta’s AI systems. Some are involved in projects beyond the smart glasses. Notably, the authors did not gain direct access to the data materials or the areas where the data annotation occurs. Former US Meta employees, who have reportedly observed live data annotation for various Meta projects, were also interviewed.
According to the report, there is a 'stream of privacy-sensitive data that is fed straight into the tech giant's systems,' leaving Sama workers feeling uneasy. Interviewees claimed to have encountered footage captured by Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses depicting individuals in intimate scenarios, such as sexual activities or using the bathroom.
One anonymous Sama employee reportedly shared through a machine translation: 'I saw a video where a man puts the glasses on the bedside table and leaves the room. Shortly afterwards, his wife comes in and changes her clothes.' Another employee mentioned witnessing users' partners emerging from the bathroom unclothed.