Ethan Carter
Understanding How Your Environment Influences Photo and Video Review Capabilities with Smart Glasses
Meta has introduced a new setting that empowers users of its smart glasses to opt out of the collection of “visual data” for AI training purposes. This feature is now accessible through the Meta AI app.
The company is actively informing smart glasses owners about this new option through a pop-up notification in the Meta AI app. The message details the capabilities of the glasses, including menu translation and plant identification, and states, “You can choose to opt out of sharing visual data from these features with Meta for product enhancement. If you decide to opt out, your data will not be retained after processing.”
Users can access the relevant settings directly by navigating to their glasses settings, selecting “Meta AI,” and then scrolling to “store visual data from AI experiences.” It’s important to have your glasses out of their case and connected to your smartphone to modify this setting. If you own multiple pairs of glasses, you will need to repeat this process for each pair individually.
Meta
Meta warns that opting out may limit access to certain features of the glasses. For example, users may lose the ability to use “visual reminders,” which allow them to look at an item and request a reminder to purchase it later. The company has not clarified whether any additional features may be impacted.
In conjunction with this new setting, Meta has released a more comprehensive explanation of how it handles “visual data” in a help center article, which mentions the potential for human review. The company states, “When utilizing AI features on your Meta glasses, such as asking about an object you are viewing or engaging with live AI, Meta collects and stores the resulting visual data. This data may be used to enhance features of the glasses and improve other Meta products. The training of AI models may involve both automated processes and manual (human) involvement.”
Meta further clarifies that it only retains “visual data” collected during specific AI functionalities, including Live AI. Importantly, the company specifies that “visual data” does not encompass “photos and videos captured with your glasses when the capture LED is activated.”
Daniel Mercer
