The Consumer Federation of America along with Ultraviolet Action led the following coalition letter from 64 civil society organizations around the country. The letter was sent today to Meta, Rayban parent company EssorLuxottica, the White House, the Federal Trade Commission, the Department of Justice, several key state Attorneys General, and leadership of relevant Congressional committees. The letter reads: The 64 undersigned civil society organizations vehemently oppose the plans to integrate facial recognition features into Meta glasses. Despite Meta’s stated intention to release the feature during a “dynamic political environment where many civil society groups that we would expect to attack us would have their resources focused on other concerns,” we are committed to opposing this creepy and unacceptable escalation of surveillance on all fronts. Integrating facial recognition into Meta glasses is a dangerous and reckless plan that will harm both users and the entire public, regardless of whether they use Meta products, whether they consent, whether they are a public figure or layperson, and whether they even know about it. This move will endanger us all, and particularly give ammunition to scammers, blackmailers, stalkers, child abusers, and authoritarian regimes. It would also create acute and unnecessary national security risks. Even without this feature, Meta glasses create a world where people can be secretly recorded with both video and audio, with no control or awareness. Meta’s primary safety control, a barely noticeable LED that illuminates when users take photos or videos, is easily disabled and fails to provide reasonable transparency. Recent reporting has confirmed everything recorded with Meta glasses, often unknowingly even, could be seen by human moderators and data labelers throughout the world. Those recordings – many of which contain highly sensitive content – are at risk of being shared, sold, breached, and weaponized against people of all political parties,