Writing by Dr. Dannielle Blumenthal

In early 2026, Swedish journalists conducted an undercover investigation into Sama, an outsourcing firm in Nairobi, Kenya, used by Meta.

Workers there were tasked with “labeling” footage to help the glasses’ AI understand what it was seeing.

Apparently users kept their phones on while interacting with private information like passwords, bank details, and home addresses.

Workers also saw users in their most intimate moments.

Now why would users expose such material?

The answer goes beyond user error (or even exhibitionism). People did not realize they were sending the data to the Meta cloud.

“If they knew about the extent of the data collection, no one would dare to use the glasses.” – Data annotator quoted in Svenska Dagbladet (original investigation)

How could this have happened?

Poorly trained salespeople making inaccurate claims in the store.

The journalists visited 10 retail stores in Sweden.

Most salespeople thought the data stayed locally on the device, which is of course logically impossible if you’re asking the device to tell you what something unfamiliar is.

In reality, when you ask the AI to “Look and tell me what this is,” the footage is sent to Meta’s servers for processing and, potentially, human review.

In response to this explosive scandal, Meta acted quickly, as one would expect.

But instead of taking responsibility, it blamed the overseas intermediary it had hired to label the AI footage.

Meta terminated its contract with Sama, claiming the firm “didn’t meet standards.”

1,108 workers in Kenya, each making $1.50 an hour, fired with only six days’ notice.

A class-action lawsuit has been filed in the U.S. (Bartone v. Meta).

“You understand that it is someone’s private life you are looking at, but at the same time you are just expected to carry out the work. You are not supposed to question it. If you start asking questions, you are gone.” – Employee quoted in Mashable (see link below)

Back to total and complete poverty.

200 former Kenyan workers are pursuing claims against Meta for psychological distress and labor violations.

“Meta’s Terms of Service reserves the right to send users’ interactions with its AI services, including its always-on live AI features, to human moderators — the company referred to this policy when asked for comment by the news outlets.” – Mashable

Read more:

Svenska Dagbladet: https://www.svd.se/a/K8nrV4/metas-ai-smart-glasses-and-data-privacy-concerns-workers-say-we-see-everything

Mashable: https://mashable.com/article/meta-ai-ray-ban-glasses-intimate-videos-workers

Wolf Popper (slogan): https://www.wolfpopper.com/news/meta-ai-glasses-designed-for-privacy

Written with the help of AI. Meta AI image.