Data annotators employed by Sama are now reportedly coming out with explosive claims that they are watching Meta AI glasses footage of people using the toilet, having sec, and other intimate moments. This latest news come from Sweden wherein newspapers have run an investigation on what data is collected by Meta and how it is reviewed.
A joint investigation by Swedish newspapers Göteborgs-Posten and Svenska Dagbladet has revealed that workers in Nairobi are annotating intimate footage captured by Meta's Ray-Ban smart glasses. A nervous worker tells Swedish journalists at a hotel in Nairobi, "In some videos you can see someone going to the toilet, or undressing naked. I don't think they know - because if they knew, they wouldn't be recording," he says.
The workers are data annotators employed by Sama, a San Francisco-based company that operates out of Nairobi and trains AI systems for major tech firms. Their job: draw boxes around objects, trace contours, label what they see. But what they're seeing goes far beyond flower pots and traffic signs.
Multiple workers describe video footage showing toilet visits, sex acts, and other intimate moments. One worker recounted clips of people emerging naked from bathrooms - partners of glasses wearers who had no idea they were being recorded. Another described footage of someone wearing the glasses during a sex act. "That's why it's so extremely sensitive," they said.
Workers also reported seeing bank card details captured by accident, people watching pornography while wearing the glasses, and transcripts of conversations covering crimes and protests. "It's not just greetings - it can be very dark things too," one reportedly said.
How does the data reach Kenya?
Meta's Ray-Ban glasses activate with the voice command "Hey Meta," capturing images and audio that are sent to Meta's servers. According to Meta's own terms of service, interactions with its AI - including the content of conversations - "may in certain cases be reviewed by Meta, including through manual review by a human reviewer."
GP and SvD interviewed 32 Sama employees in Nairobi. Nine work specifically on annotating videos, images, and audio for Meta's AI systems. All spoke under conditions of anonymity, fearing dismissal and the loss of income that could force them back into poverty.
Former Meta employees told the Swedish journalists that sensitive data is not supposed to be used to train AI models - but acknowledged it can happen anyway. Automatic face-blurring, intended to anonymise footage, sometimes fails, particularly in difficult lighting conditions.
Meta Ray-Ban sellers have no clue about where the data goes
GP and SvD visited ten glasses retailers in Gothenburg and Stockholm. In several cases, store staff said they didn't know what data the glasses transmit, where it goes, or whether anything is shared automatically with Meta. One salesperson reassured reporters, "Nothing is shared with them. You have full control." Another said simply, "I don't know where the data ends up."
When reporters analysed the network traffic from the Meta AI app, they found the phone was in constant contact with Meta's servers - contradicting what they had been told in stores.
