Smart glasses in the works at Facebook may be equipped with face recognition.

What’s new: The social media colossus plans to market augmented-reality headgear, and it’s considering a feature that would overlay a person’s name on their face, according to Buzzfeed.

What’s happening: Announced by Mark Zuckerberg in 2017 (shown in the video clip above), the glasses are set to drop this year. Some capabilities — including face recognition — may be added later, Facebook vice president Andrew Bosworth told Bloomberg News.

Bosworth said the technology could remind users of the names of people whom they had met previously. Similarly, it could help people with face blindness, a neurological condition that makes it hard to recognize familiar faces.
Facebook is assessing the legal ramifications, since this capability may not be lawful everywhere. For instance, an Illinois law against collecting biometric data might bar the product in that state.
Where local laws don’t pose a barrier, the company may formulate its own rules factoring in the potential for harm, said Facebook diversity officer Maxine Williams.

Behind the news: Facebook’s smart glasses, which will be manufactured by Ray-Ban, will compete against Snapchat Spectacles and Google Glass (lately refocused from consumer to enterprise applications).

Why it matters: Wearable hardware that recognizes faces raises serious questions about privacy. Facebook has an incentive to tread carefully: It was the least trusted of nine major social media platforms in a recent survey.

We’re thinking: A Facebook foray into mass-market face recognition could force U.S. lawmakers finally to issue rules on how the technology can and can’t be used.

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