Meta Fires Kenyan Contractors After Workers Exposed Disturbing Ray-Ban AI Glasses Footage Review

Meta’s Response to Disturbing Ray-Ban AI Glasses Footage Sparks Controversy

In February, contractors working for Meta in Kenya disclosed to Svenska Dagbladet and Göteborgs-Posten that they were required to review deeply sensitive footage captured by the company’s Ray-Ban AI glasses. Among the disturbing content were instances of users appearing naked, using the toilet, or engaging in sex scenes. One contractor even reported seeing a man’s wife undressing in their bedroom after he left the glasses on a table.

"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," one employee told the Swedish newspapers. "You are not supposed to question it. If you start asking questions, you are gone."

Two months after these allegations were published, Meta responded by terminating its entire contract with the Kenyan company Sama, as reported by the BBC.

Workers Allege Retaliation for Speaking Out

A Kenyan worker’s organization has accused Meta of retaliating against employees who exposed the disturbing content. Meta did not directly address this allegation but stated to the BBC:

"We decided to end our work with Sama because they don’t meet our standards," the company said, while emphasizing that it took the workers’ claims "seriously."

"Photos and videos are private to users. Humans review AI content to improve product performance, for which we get clear user consent."

Sama, however, defended its workers, asserting:

"Sama has consistently met the operational, security, and quality standards required across our client engagements, including with Meta. At no point were we notified of any failure to meet those standards, and we stand firmly behind the quality and integrity of our work."

AI Industry’s Dark Underbelly Exposed

The incident highlights broader concerns about the AI industry’s reliance on underpaid overseas workers who manually label sensitive data to train AI models. At Sama, workers were performing data annotation, a process that involves manually labeling images, videos, and other content so AI models can recognize and interpret them during training.

For the Ray-Ban glasses, this annotation is intended to help the built-in AI function more seamlessly. However, it has also fueled perceptions that Meta’s AI wearables are "pervert glasses," capable of discreetly recording people without their consent or knowledge.

While the Ray-Ban glasses include a light indicator when recording, reports suggest this feature can be disabled. Contractors noted that some users were unaware their glasses were recording at all:

"People can record themselves in the wrong way and not even know what they are recording," one worker told the Swedish newspapers.

Regulatory Scrutiny Intensifies Over Privacy Violations

The revelations have drawn significant regulatory attention. The UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) contacted Meta regarding the "concerning" reports, while Kenya’s Office of the Data Protection Commissioner announced it would investigate potential privacy violations linked to the Ray-Ban AI glasses.

Naftali Wambalo of the Africa Tech Workers Movement has also been involved in discussions surrounding the incident.