The Consumer Federation of America along with Ultraviolet Action led the following coalition letter from 64 civil society organizations around the country. The letter was sent today to Meta, Rayban parent company EssorLuxottica, the White House, the Federal Trade Commission, the Department of Justice, several key state Attorneys General, and leadership of relevant Congressional committees.
The letter reads:
The 64 undersigned civil society organizations vehemently oppose the plans to integrate facial recognition features into Meta glasses. Despite Meta’s stated intention to release the feature 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,” we are committed to opposing this creepy and unacceptable escalation of surveillance on all fronts.
Integrating facial recognition into Meta glasses is a dangerous and reckless plan that will harm both users and the entire public, regardless of whether they use Meta products, whether they consent, whether they are a public figure or layperson, and whether they even know about it. This move will endanger us all, and particularly give ammunition to scammers, blackmailers, stalkers, child abusers, and authoritarian regimes. It would also create acute and unnecessary national security risks.
Even without this feature, Meta glasses create a world where people can be secretly recorded with both video and audio, with no control or awareness. Meta’s primary safety control, a barely noticeable LED that illuminates when users take photos or videos, is easily disabled and fails to provide reasonable transparency. Recent reporting has confirmed everything recorded with Meta glasses, often unknowingly even, could be seen by human moderators and data labelers throughout the world. Those recordings – many of which contain highly sensitive content – are at risk of being shared, sold, breached, and weaponized against people of all political parties, genders, and ages. Add facial recognition to that mix, and the threat of weaponization increases exponentially.
This outcome is not inevitable and it is not acceptable. Meta knows this, as indicated by their spending of millions to crush commonsense AI and privacy protections, as well as the politicians who dare to push for them.
We urge Meta to reverse course, and will use every lever possible to hold Meta accountable for the litany of crimes they will be responsible for if the company goes forward with this dangerous and reckless product.
Consumer Federation of America
Ultraviolet Action
Abortion Care Network
Affordable Homeownership Foundation Inc.
AFT
All* Above All
Autistic Women & Nonbinary Network
Black Voters Matter Fund
California Initiative for Technology and Democracy
Center for Digital Democracy
Center for Media and Democracy
Center for the Study of Organized Hate (CSOH)
Chayn
Citizen Action/Illinois
Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety
Consumer Reports
Courage California
Design it For Us
Earth Ethics, Inc.
Economic Action Maryland Fund
Electronic Privacy Information Center
Fairplay
Faithful America
Fight for the Future
Georgia Alliance for Progress
Higher Heights
Housing and Economic Rights Advocates
Joyful Heart Foundation
Justice and Joy National Collaborative
Kairos Fellowship
Leah Juliett, Survivor and Activist
Legal Momentum, the Women’s Legal Defense & Education Fund
Louisiana Progress
Media Access Project
MomsRising
Mothers Against Media Addiction (MAMA)
MPower Change
Muslim Advocates
National Partnership for Women and Families
National Organization for Women
National Women’s Political Caucus
NC Environmental Justice Network
New Jersey Citizen Action
New Jersey Institute for Social Justice
Oakland Privacy
Open MIC (Open Media and Information Companies Initiative)
Oregon Consumer League
Parents Together
People Power United
Public Citizen
Privacy Defense Alliance
Religious Community for Reproductive Choice
Rise Up WV
Dr. Spring Chenoa Cooper, Survivor, Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Community Health and Social Sciences, CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy
Sustain SJ
Tech Oversight California
Tech Oversight Project
TechTonic Justice
The Carson J. Bride Effect
The Oversight Lab
There Are No Girls On The Internet Podcast
Vermont Public Interest Research Group
VoteAmerica
William E Morris Institute for Justice