The Digester

Workers say they watched private Ray-Ban Meta footage; class action filed

Mar 9th 2026

A Swedish report says subcontracted annotators viewed sensitive footage from Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, prompting regulator inquiries and a new class-action lawsuit against Meta and Luxottica.

  • A February Swedish investigation based on interviews with more than 30 Sama employees says contractors viewed Ray-Ban Meta footage showing people naked and using the bathroom.
  • Meta confirms it sometimes shares user content with contractors to improve products and says data is filtered to protect privacy.
  • Meta’s wearables policy says cloud processing sends glasses photos, videos, transcripts, and voice recordings to Meta and that third party reviewers may process them.
  • Sama says its work is done in secure facilities, follows GDPR and CCPA, and includes staff training and background checks.
  • A proposed class-action lawsuit alleges Meta and Luxottica misled consumers by marketing the glasses as private while human reviewers accessed intimate footage.
  • The UK Information Commissioner’s Office has written to Meta, and reports say Meta may add facial recognition to its smart glasses this year.