Someone has developed an app that warns if people nearby may be wearing smart glasses, such as the widely popular Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses.
As 404Media notes, stalkers and harassers have used smart glasses to film people without their knowledge or consent, sparking concerns over the growing popularity of smart glasses.
Essentially, the app is a Bluetooth scanner that scans for the smart glasses’ distinctive low-energy Bluetooth pings (also known as “advertising frames”, and are part of the glasses’ normal operation) and sends a push alert if it detects a potential pair of the smart glasses in the area.
The developer, Yves Jeanrenaud, made this possible by referencing a directory of Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) manufacturers, and then made the app scan for Meta, Luxottica Group S.p.A (who partners with Meta), and Snap, which has its own smart glasses offering
This app comes as companies such as Meta continue to add AI-powered features into its offerings. Earlier this month, a report from the New York Times revealed that Meta was working on adding facial recognition to its smart glasses (yikes), and has dubbed it “Name Tag.”
This feature would also mean that the smart glasses would be able to identify people and gather information from Meta’s AI assistant without your consent, which is horrifying, honestly.
If you want to be even more horrified, 404Media also reported that two students paired the Meta Ray-Ban glasses with off-the-shelf facial recognition technology and people search sites to turn them into glasses that could instantly dox someone, alongside a $60 mod that could easily disable the privacy-protecting recording light in the glasses.
This detection software isn’t a new concept. We’ve seen similar methods used to detect Apple’s AirTags and similar trackers. I imagine it won’t be long before both Google and Apple decide to add the feature to their operating systems as a privacy measure.
You can currently get the app from the Play Store or GitHub.
Source: 404 Media
