Meta removed a hidden facial‑recognition module from the companion app that pairs its Ray‑Ban and Oakley smart glasses with a phone. The code, internally called Name Tag, would have turned captured faces into on‑device biometric IDs and matched them against future scans. An update on June 5 erased the feature after Wired exposed it on June 4.

The discovery follows a February New York Times report that Meta was experimenting with face‑recognition for its glasses. Wired found the dormant tool could have let users instantly identify strangers, a convenience some might find useful but many would deem invasive. The swift pull‑back highlights the tension between novel AR functions and privacy expectations.

Meta’s vice president of communications, Andy Stone, told Wired the feature was a pilot and no final decision had been made. Yet engineers wrote, reviewed and shipped the code, raising concerns for owners and anyone whose face might be scanned without consent. The removal underscores how closely Meta must balance ambitious hardware ambitions with public scrutiny.