Facebook is considering adding facial recognition to its expected smart glasses, which are scheduled to be introduced to the market next year.
And at a meeting of all employees, Andrew Bosworth, director of Facebook Reality Labs, said: The company is studying the legal implications and privacy of the technology.
The facial recognition used helps to identify a person whose name, according to Bosworth´s theory, has forgotten, or if he suffers from face blindness.
During a company-wide meeting, a Bosworth employee asked about the privacy concerns raised by the technology.
Bosworth replied: That could be the thorny issue, as the benefits are so clear, the risks are so obvious, and we don´t know how to balance these things.
Privacy was a sore topic for Facebook, which paid $ 650 million to settle a lawsuit alleging it violated Illinois´ biometric privacy law by using member data to tag people in photos.
"Although Facebook smart glasses would be fine without the ability to recognize a face, there are some cases of beneficial use, such as forgetting someone´s name in a meeting," Bosworth wrote on Twitter.
He also noted the benefit of the feature for people with face blindness, a neurological condition that makes familiar faces difficult to recognize.
Maxine Williams, Facebook´s chief diversity officer, added that the company may need to develop its own privacy guidelines in areas where the technology is not regulated by law.
In September, Mark Zuckerberg revealed Facebook´s partnership with Luxottica Group to manufacture Ray Bans smart glasses.
Moreover, the social media giant has been intentionally vague about its plans, even as to when the wearables are expected to arrive.
And in a January blog post, Bosworth said that devices are arriving sooner rather than later, and he told Bloomberg that smart glasses can enhance a person´s life in a way that a smartphone cannot do, such as capturing a moment with your children.
This indicates that the glasses include a camera or other method for capturing and saving moments, but may not include augmented reality technology.
"These glasses are connected to the internet, and they provide a lot of functionality, but we´re not talking about the jobs we offer specifically," Bosworth said.
He added: We are excited but we don´t want to overdo it, and we don´t call them augmented reality glasses, just smart glasses.
