Meta Sued Over AI Glasses Recording Bystanders Without Consent

An amended class action filed September 2, 2026 adds a second class of plaintiffs to a lawsuit against Meta: the bystanders captured on video and audio by wearers of the company's AI glasses. According to the complaint, cited by Futurism, "no bystanders anywhere had any opportunity to, much less in fact did, consent to having their faces, bodies, voices, and personal information captured" before that footage was routed to overseas human reviewers who help train Meta's AI models. Three experts in our Who's Who directory shared the Futurism piece.

Ryan Clarkson, managing partner of Clarkson Law Firm, is lead counsel. "Meta sold millions of consumers on the lie that their AI glasses were 'designed for privacy,'" he says. The complaint argues the marketing was cover for something else: "No reasonable consumer would expect that a product marketed as privacy-protective is a conduit for AI training." Meta sold over 7 million pairs of the glasses in 2025.

The amended claims lean on a joint investigation by two Swedish newspapers, which spoke to whistleblowers at Sama, a content-moderation contractor reviewing footage the glasses generate. "In some videos you can see someone going to the toilet, or getting undressed," one whistleblower told the papers. The original March 2026 filing had already alleged that intimate content, including nudity and sexual activity, was captured and sent to overseas reviewers.

Meta's response was brief: "We disagree with these allegations and will fight them."