Meta got caught with facial recognition code sitting inside an app downloaded by over 50 million people, and its executives can’t seem to agree on whether it even exists.
WIRED reported on June 4 that unreleased code for a feature called “NameTag” was embedded within Meta’s AI companion app. The feature was designed for use with Meta’s Ray-Ban and Oakley smart glasses, using on-device AI to detect faces through the glasses’ camera, generate biometric signatures, and alert users when they encountered someone they’d previously met.
The executive contradiction
Meta VP Andy Stone flatly denied the feature’s existence. Meanwhile, CTO Andrew Bosworth took a different approach entirely, calling the WIRED reporting “misleading.”
The next day, Meta removed nearly all traces of the NameTag code from its app updates.
