Overview
- Wired's code analysis published June 5 and independent researchers confirmed that Meta's Meta‑AI companion app contains an inactive face‑recognition feature that appears nearly deployment‑ready.
- The code describes three local models that detect faces, crop images, and generate unique biometric "Faceprints" that are compared to Faceprints stored on a user's phone.
- The app's database appears able to pull Faceprint updates from Meta servers and store them locally, and the code includes a "pending" folder for unknown faces that are indexed for review.
- Meta says no face‑recognition feature has been turned on for users and no final decision has been made, while security researchers warn the design could enable large‑scale, decentralized identification if activated.
- The finding matters because the companion app has more than 50 million installs and recalls Meta's 2021 deletion of over a billion Faceprints after major privacy settlements, which raises legal and consumer‑protection risks to watch for if Meta moves to enable the feature.