Meta's ships facial recognition on smart glasses • Hacker News Board

Re: Meta's ships facial recognition on smart glasses

#131

Post by KaiserPro » Thu, Jun 04, 2026, 9:48 PM UTC

johndough wrote: post #83

KaiserPro wrote: post #6

Former Facebook wanker, who worked in research. 1) we were always told and legal always pushed back hard on anything face detecting.(ie haar cascade "this is a face" let alone actual this is dave/sally) 2) the FTC would audit us to make sure we weren't doing that kind of stuff 3) all of the research prototypes had inbuilt/inline face removers up until 2024(I left after that so I don't know when/if that changed) 3.1)…

I recall that Facebook asked me to identify faces of my friends in order to "verify" myself about 15 years ago. Do you know whether Facebook still stores that data?

> Do you know whether Facebook still stores that data?

Honestly I couldn’t answer that. I never really touched production userdata (mainly because it was scary and also it was in PHP or some horrid transpiled interface to PHP)

My gut feeling is that facebook doesn't throw data away unless its forced to. So its probably there on your graph somewhere.

Re: Meta's ships facial recognition on smart glasses

#132

Post by Brusco_RF » Thu, Jun 04, 2026, 9:50 PM UTC

salawat wrote: post #117

ryandrake wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find myself asking this every time a new software product is released. "Nice, but why can't this be usable without an account and a tether to the developer's cloud?"

And the answer is monetization. We can't just solve a problem. It has to have a business model built around it. No exceptions.

Feel free to solve a problem and release it for free. People do that every day.

Re: Meta's ships facial recognition on smart glasses

#133

Post by bensyverson » Thu, Jun 04, 2026, 9:50 PM UTC

free_bip wrote: post #97

Manuel_D wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That pertains to collecting biometric info, not end users of facial recognition services. From your link: > The BIPA requires companies doing business in Illinois to comply with a number of requirements pertaining to the collection and storage of biometric information. These include a requirement that companies: > Obtain consent from individuals if the company intends to collect or disclose their personal biometric i…

If you actually read the full text of the law, it states: " "Biometric identifier” means a retina or iris scan, fingerprint, voiceprint, or scan of hand or face geometry. Biometric identifiers do not include writing samples, written signatures, photographs, human biological samples, [...] " So if it's just pictures of faces, then it's okay. If, however, at any point in the pipeline the actual facial geometry is calcu…

Exactly. They've done it in the past, and it cost them $650M. It's unclear whether that was enough of a deterrent to change their behavior. [0]

  [0]: https://www.rgrdlaw.com/cases-in-re-facebook-biometric-info-privacy-litig.html

Re: Meta's ships facial recognition on smart glasses

#134

Post by clickety_clack » Thu, Jun 04, 2026, 9:51 PM UTC

Creeper glasses.

Re: Meta's ships facial recognition on smart glasses

#135

Post by polio » Thu, Jun 04, 2026, 9:54 PM UTC

jjice wrote: post #38

RobotToaster wrote: post #29

I wish something like this existed that was completely offline. I'm face blind (prosopagnosia) so being able to feed an offline database photos of friends so it can recognise them would be great. Accessibility shouldn't require giving up privacy.

Honestly, if any big tech would implement it this way, it's likely Apple. Their image face recognition in Photos currently is fully on device from what I understand and it is set by who you associate it with locally.

Apple will create a comparable device; it'll just take them five more years to get the product experience down.

Re: Meta's ships facial recognition on smart glasses

#136

Post by simonw » Thu, Jun 04, 2026, 9:56 PM UTC

When Google Glass first released back in 2012 I was running a conference technology startup, and since we had a database full of speaker and attendee profile photos the obvious thing we could build with Glass would be a "your glasses help you spot the people you are planning to meet in a crowded room" app.

The Google Glass developer terms strictly forbid building that, and it didn't take more than a few seconds of deeper thought to understand why.

Re: Meta's ships facial recognition on smart glasses

#137

Post by recursive-call » Thu, Jun 04, 2026, 9:57 PM UTC

reaperducer wrote: post #105

GrinningFool wrote: post #18

Another case of really cool tech done badly. Imagine a world in which you could use facial recognition, have an instant summary in front of you you reminding you of someone's birthday, the names of their kids ... Then imagine that it wasn't tracked, recorded, saved, or tied into anything at all. Just a useful service, in service to only you. Thanks Meta et al, for pushing forward with this broken (for people) model o…

Imagine a world in which you could use facial recognition, have an instant summary in front of you you reminding you of someone's birthday, the names of their kids ... I already have that. It's called a memory. Came free with my brain.

Which is great for you, but a lot of people genuinely don’t have the memory capabilities to remember the birthdays of various people. I literally forget how to spell my own name sometimes, keeping track of birthdays is out of the question. But people get really offended if their birthdays go by unnoticed…

Re: Meta's ships facial recognition on smart glasses

#138

Post by Findecanor » Thu, Jun 04, 2026, 9:58 PM UTC

Meta had taken its name from the virtual world "Metaverse" in Neal Stephenson 1992 novel Snow Crash. The novel is the earliest known use of that word, so if it wasn't directly then it was indirectly.

The book also describes "Gargoyles": people using headsets with cameras and sensors to spy on everyone around them for the "Central Intelligence Corporation" while being also simultaneously in the Metaverse.

Funny, how the gargoyles are described in the book in a somewhat derogatory manner, and the villain of the story is an billionaire who owns a large Internet corporation.

At least the gargoyles in the book got paid.

Re: Meta's ships facial recognition on smart glasses

#139

Post by majiy » Thu, Jun 04, 2026, 9:58 PM UTC

NobodyNada wrote: post #111

joshred wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Usually you talk to them and then you remember who they are or where you know them from. It's not like you can't tell your wife apart from your orthodontist.

I recently learned that I have some level of face-blindness (I took the CFMT online and scored 43). It's something I've had my whole life but only recently realized wasn't "normal". It's not like I can't recognize people at all, but rather that faces aren't very distinctive to me compared to other identifying characteristics (such as hair color/style/length, clothing, skin tone, height, voice, gait, mannerisms, etc.)…

Best tip I can give: Be open with it.

If someone talks to you and you're not sure who they are, tell them you're faceblind and ask. It takes some getting used to, but it's worth it.

In my previous company we gave a short introduction when joining, and I included faceblindness. "If I meet you randomly on the street and don't say hello, that's not with malicious intent."

Most people are understanding, though a few are not, but really then it's their problem.

Re: Meta's ships facial recognition on smart glasses

#140

Post by soco » Thu, Jun 04, 2026, 9:59 PM UTC

noman-land wrote: post #124

caturopath wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like the poster, I'm faceblind. It isn't the worst thing: I'm not voice blind, height blind, age blind, hairstyle blind, gender blind, features associated with race and ethnicity blind, attractiveness blind, affect blind, context blind, etc., so I'm mostly good at figuring out who someone is. Within one encounter with a bunch of people, I try to note what someone is wearing. Every once in a while I don't recognize so…

This is fascinating. So you know that you've met someone before. You know things about them. But you don't recognize them? What does this mean? You don't remember their name? You don't know why or how you know them?

I'm not the OP neither have their problem, but I can't remember names. I know who the person in front of me is, we can talk pleasantly about everything - I have a good memory otherwise - but I can't remember their name to save my life. Luckily they very seldom notice that, if ever. And I won't tell, obviously.