A leaked internal Meta document has revealed something that should make all of us uncomfortable. When launching facial recognition software for its smart glasses, Meta apparently noted that civil society groups would be too busy dealing with other political fires to push back hard. The implication is that Meta saw a window of reduced public scrutiny and chose to use it.
This is what it looks like when your privacy is treated as a corporate decision rather than a right. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has written about this in plain terms: when companies get to decide whether or not to respect your privacy based on what they can get away with at any given moment, you don’t really have privacy at all. You have a favour that can be withdrawn whenever it suits them.
This matters beyond Meta and beyond facial recognition. It reflects a broader pattern we see across big tech. Privacy policies change, free services become paid ones and data collected for one purpose gets repurposed for another. The common thread is that individuals have very little say in any of it.
The alternative isn’t complicated to describe, even if it’s harder to build. It means strong legal protections that don’t depend on corporate goodwill. It means open source tools where you can see what’s happening to your data. It means choosing services from providers who aren’t funded by selling your attention and your information.
At The Ethical Computing Project CIC, we think privacy should be a right, not a product feature. That starts with being honest about how the current system works, and who it actually serves.
Read the full piece from the EFF and see exactly what Meta’s own words reveal about how your privacy is viewed behind closed doors.
Source: The EFF
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/05/your-privacy-shouldnt-be-corporate-decision