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Meta sold 7 million Ray‑Ban smart glasses in 2025; user video from queries is…
Brief
Meta's Ray‑Ban smart glasses, which reportedly sold 7 million pairs in 2025, send user video to subcontractor Sama in Nairobi where annotators paid about $2/hour manually label footage. Workers say they view intimate scenes and unblurred faces despite Meta's face‑anonymization and a TOS clause permitting “manual (human) review”; Sama faced a 2023 TIME exposé.
Why it matters
Meta sold 7 million Ray‑Ban smart glasses in 2025; user video from queries is routed to subcontractor Sama in Nairobi where annotators reportedly earn about $2/hour to manually label footage.
Key details
- Workers report viewing intimate content (people undressing, using bathrooms, having sex) and sensitive data (bank card details); Meta’s automatic face anonymization reportedly fails in some lighting, allowing Nairobi reviewers to identify people.
- Meta’s terms reserve the right to “manual (human) review”; Sama was exposed by TIME in 2023 for paying Kenyan annotators $2/hour while being billed $12.50/hour to clients; workers allege NDAs, office surveillance, firing for complaints, and Meta plans to add facial recognition to future glasses.