Meta. App is exposed to the AI Face Recognition function-related code: Impacts on over 50 million devices, and the company's response says it's just exploration.

News from IT House, June 5th. Meta. When the software was unpacked, it was discovered that Meta had been updated through several applications to push a code for human face recognition technology into its smart glasses application. However, this code is not currently available.

The internal designator of the function is "NameTag". It identifies the person's face taken with smart glasses and sends a reminder to the wearer when it is successful. The application downloads over 50 million times, which is essential for the use of the critical functions of Meta's smart glasses such as Ray Pen and O'Kley.

Meta indicated in April this year that if face recognition techniques were to be adopted in the future, the company would take a “very cautious approach” before being introduced. But Connect found that the core code of the system had been distributed to millions of users in January of this year.

At the technical level, the system, as currently designed, converts the face of a person that is taken with smart glasses to a unique biometric signature, namely, the Face Identity Template (faceprints) and matches the human face identity database stored on a user ' s mobile phone once the functionality is operational.

The database is currently configured to receive updates from Meta. The recognition of successful faces triggers a notice, while the remaining faces are cut, indexed and stored in a directory marked " pending " .

Connect indicates that the three AI models on which the name Tag relies have been deployed to the user device. Based on the results of the analysis, one model is responsible for detecting human faces, one model is responsible for cutting images and the third model is responsible for coding human faces into biometric data. The results of the respective analyses were independently reproduced by two external security researchers. There are only partial user interfaces at present, and in May, the App version updates the feature by the name "Connects", inviting the user to "Remember the person you met."

If finally online, NameTag will restart Meta's technology that was declared terminated in 2021. In the same year, Meta announced the deletion of human face profiles for over 1 billion Facebook users and the closure of the photo automarking system. Prior to this, the company had caused continuing controversy over the related business and eventually paid $650 million (IT House Note: The current exchange rate is approximately RMB 44.13 billion) to settle a class action with users in Illinois, United States; in 2024, Meta also entered into a US$ 1.4 billion settlement agreement with Texas (the current rate is approximately RMB 95.04 billion) to address allegations of illegal collection of user biometric data.

Cooper Quentin, a safety researcher at the Threat Laboratory of the Electronic Front Foundation, a non-profit organization, said: “The function is not yet open to consumers but appears to be almost ready. Although there are billions of reasons not to do so, Meta seems to have built up the ability to turn its clients into distributed surveillance machines.”

An independent security and privacy researcher who has been working on the reverse engineering of consumer software and surveillance for more than 10 years under alias Buchodi has conducted an additional test of the identification process, adding a human face template for the late French philosopher Michelle Foco to the application library, which triggers the name Tag and applies a prompt ejection notification: “Persons are identified”. Buchodi states: "The main components of the human face recognition function are already present in the Meta app, not much distance from a available function."

In the face of external questions, Meta spokesman Ryan Daniels responded: “No matter how sensational some of the reports are, the fact is simple: we said earlier that this function was being explored, and what you are seeing now is evidence of it. No functionality has been released to consumers, and we have yet to make a final decision on whether to introduce it in the future. If we decide to introduce the relevant functions, we will proceed in a cautious manner and in a fully transparent manner. And one other thing we can be clear about -- we'll never create a central face database."

Advertising statements: The external jump links (including not limited to hyperlinks, 2D codes, passwords, etc.) contained in the text are used to convey more information and save time for selection purposes only for reference purposes, which are included in all IT House articles.