ACLU – April 14, 2026

What if a stranger could know everything about you just by looking at you – from your workplace to your politics to your hobbies?

This is the reality that Meta could be creating with their new plans to add facial recognition to their “smart glasses” collabs with Ray-Ban and Oakley – and it poses a real threat to our security. Police and federal agents could use these glasses to ramp up alarming surveillance against activists and political opponents. Stalkers and scammers could use them to harass and harm vulnerable strangers.

Put simply: These glasses aren’t just creepy, they’re a threat to our rights and safety.

We’re calling on Meta to drop their plans for this dangerous technology. Tell Meta to respect our privacy and stop the facial recognition glasses project.

Meta has a history of violating users’ privacy.

In recent years, they’ve paid over $2 billion in settlements for misusing consumers’ biometric data – along with $5 billion to the Federal Trade Commission for privacy violations. Meanwhile, they’ve cut back their privacy teams and shortened their review timelines for privacy flags.

Now, they want to release technology that will use facial recognition technology to let people identify any stranger they walk past without their consent – and potentially link them to massive Meta databases full of sensitive information about our health, behaviors, and relationships. It’s plain to see how this will exacerbate stalking, harassment, and abuse. Congress is already sounding the alarm, with Senators Markey, Merkley, and Wyden sending a message to Meta raising serious safety concerns.

Yet in a memo leaked to the New York Times, the Meta team working on the facial recognition project mused that now is a good time to launch such a controversial project, because groups like the ACLU are too busy fighting fascism to do anything about it. Help us prove them wrong.

Meta must take action immediately to prevent this invasive technology from helping build a surveillance state. Tell Meta: Eyewear, not spywear.

With thanks for all you do,

Cody Venzke
Pronouns: He, him, his
Senior Staff Attorney, ACLU

Kade Crockford
Director, Tech and Justice Programs
ACLU of Massachusetts

Gideon Epstein
Tech for Liberty Policy Counsel
ACLU of Massachusetts

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American Civil Liberties Union
125 Broad Street, 18th Floor
New York, NY 10004, USA