A disturbing report from 404 Media reveals that Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses could be used to violate people’s privacy. Two Harvard University students used facial recognition technology and large-scale language models to reveal the names, occupations, and other details of their subjects. Their setup (called I-XRAY) uses that information to collect other data about the person, such as address, phone number, family details, and part of their Social Security number, from various sources on the web. You can put it together. All of this is said to happen automatically.
This is possible with a variety of cameras, but Anhu Nguyen and Cane Ardeifio chose to use Meta’s smart glasses, which have a built-in camera and are “almost indistinguishable from regular glasses.” I did. A demo video shows students using the glasses to quickly take pictures. Find out information about people you meet in public places. Based on information gleaned through their facial recognition setup, Nguyen and Ardeifio address seemingly strangers by name, talk to them about their work, and bring up places they may have met in the past.
The video describes students streaming videos from their glasses to Instagram. The stream is monitored by a computer program. When the AI detects someone’s face, its I-XRAY system retrieves more photos of that person from the web along with public information about that person. The program then feeds those details back to a mobile app built by Nguyen and Ardayfio. This process may only take a few minutes to complete.
The students told 404 Media that they developed I-XRAY to show people what is possible with the technology, and that the code they used will not be made public. Nguyen said some people he showed the technology to suggested they might use it to network with friends or play pranks, but there were serious safety concerns. Some people also pointed out that. “Some men might find out a girl’s home address on the train and follow her home,” Nguyen said.
In a Google document explaining some of the technology behind the system, Nguyen and Ardayfio provide a resource detailing how to remove information from the services you used for I-XRAY. If you’re concerned about privacy, you can also consider using a personal information deletion service like DeleteMe or Incogni.
This type of technology is not inherently new — 404 Media notes that Meta and Google have had the ability to apply facial recognition to camera feeds for years, but had not released it publicly. , he points out. But the ability to use this feature on relatively innocuous-looking off-the-shelf smart glasses (save for the lights that are activated while the camera is recording) may be a cause for concern.
When asked for comment, Meta directed Engadget to this section of the terms of service for Facebook View, the smart glasses’ companion app.
Your use of Facebook View is at your own risk. You will comply with all applicable laws when using Facebook View and will not use video recordings, audio recordings, biometric data or other privacy, data protection or other notices required under applicable law. You are responsible for providing or obtaining consent. Individuals who use your Facebook View or interact with you while you use your Facebook View. You are also responsible for using Facebook View in a safe, legal, and respectful manner. You may not tamper with the Glasses or hide or change any features on the Glasses (including externally facing LED lights) that alert others that the Glasses are recording.
Facebook View is intended purely for personal or home use. You may use Facebook View only for your personal, non-commercial use, subject to these Terms and any other terms we provide in connection with Facebook View. You may not disassemble, decompile, reverse engineer, decrypt or otherwise attempt to derive code or extract software from Facebook View unless such restriction is prohibited by applicable law. Except to the extent expressly permitted by us, you may not create derivative works based on Facebook View or any other software or content, distribute, license, sell, rent, transfer, publicly display, publicly May not be played, transmitted, streamed, broadcast, or otherwise exploited. Services available on or through Facebook View.
