Swedish newspapers earlier this year Swedish daily and Gothenburg Post published a joint investigation that found contract workers in Kenya were made to review sensitive and personal footage captured by Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses, including videos of people using the bathroom, getting dressed and having sex.
In April, Meta reduced those workers’ exposure to disturbing footage — not by offering them new protective gear or installing new safety features to reduce the amount of inappropriate material filmed, but by terminating the contract with the company that employed those contractors. The Guardian first reported that more than 1,000 of these workers were employed by a Kenyan company called Sama. Meta was fired as a result of cutting ties. So nothing is fixed, but at least Meta won’t have to hear about it now.
If you recall, the contractors who worked for Sama were mostly data annotators. They were tasked with reviewing images captured by Meta smartglasses users and tagging them to help AI systems get better at identifying objects — a tedious and labor-intensive role that requires close attention to every detail on the screen. The work and the images they were exposed to made these workers even more upset. A Swedish investigation found examples of contractors witnessing people using the toilet, undressing, watching porn and having sex.
“The Guardian” writes that Meta blamed the situation on Sama, the company with which he had signed a contract. The company said in a statement to the publication, “Photos and videos are private to users. People review AI content to improve product performance, for which we obtain clear user consent. We have also decided to end our work with Sama because it does not meet our standards.” (It’s not entirely clear how Sky is responsible for the whole situation, but aside from its contractors blowing the whistle, it’s a bigger violation than, you know, collecting sensitive material and sharing it with a third party that doesn’t meet your standards.)
Of course, the highest price of the whole situation is paid by the workers. Citing data from Oversight Lab, an organization that advocates for workers’ rights in Africa’s tech industry, The Guardian said it received six days’ notice that the fired contractors would have their jobs terminated. The organization reportedly helps workers explore their legal options, but it’s not exactly an income replacement.
