And yet, according to the company's executives, it's "dishonest" to inform the public about a piece of unreleased tech that Meta has chosen to incorporate into a consumer product.

Meta referred to the discovery as "sensational" and characterized NameTag as exploratory. "We've said before we're exploring these types of features, and what you're seeing is just evidence of that exploration," the company said in a statement to Wired. "Nothing has shipped to consumers and no final decision has been made on what to do here, if anything. If we do decide to roll something out, we will take a and do so with full transparency. One decision we can be clear about—we are not building a central face database."

"It's not until [paragraph] four that Wired says this feature is 'not enabled,'" declared Meta spokesperson and VP of communications Andy Stone. "And then takes until [paragraph] 16 for Wired to reflect that Meta has no existing plans and this is exploratory. And not until [paragraph] ten does Wired quote its own expert saying the feature is not 'exposed to consumers.'"

"This is more than shoddy reporting, it's intellectually dishonest," Stone continued. "Pure advocacy-driven click bait."

The fact that you're "exploring" this tech at all is deeply concerning. You've done everything possible to erode the trust of the public so why would anyone believe you would do it "thoughtfully"?