Meta smart glasses have garnered considerable attention for their unique blend of fashion and functionality. The built-in cameras and hands-free interaction with the wearable make them attractive to many, especially the younger generation. Recently, two Harvard students have been using smart glasses to access strangers' information. The wearable was used to instantly reveal strangers' personal details through Instagram streams, raising some serious privacy questions.
Two Harvard students are using Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses to identify strangers in public using a facial recognition system
Meta's Ray-Ban glasses offer an iconic wearable packed with some smart features that allow users to engage in a hands-free experience. Two Harvard students have integrated smart glasses with a facial recognition system that helps automatically dox strangers and access their information in public.
According to 404media, the facial recognition system called I-XRAY can be used to retrieve information such as phone numbers, addresses, or even social security numbers of strangers. All the user needs to do is look at the person. While software capabilities have been making the rounds, it is the hardware running the software that has been the talk of the town, which is Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses.
Nguyen and Ardayfio created I-XRAY using Meta's smart glasses along with PimEyes facial recognition software, which is currently the largest search engine. The entire system of fetching information on the individual is automatic, and the smart glasses start digging the data as soon as the face is in the frame. In a demo video shared on X, AnhPhu Nguyen stated:
We stream the video from the glasses straight to Instagram and have a computer program monitor the stream. We use AI to detect when we’re looking at someone’s face, then we scour the internet to find more pictures of that person. Finally, we use data sources like online articles and voter registration databases to figure out their name, phone number, home address and relatives’ names.
The students further went on to suggest that they were able to access information of dozens of Harvard students without them having a clue about this. In response to this project that has been making quite the buzz, Meta pointed that the PimEyes software can be used with any similar hardware with a camera and there is nothing in particular that Meta's smart glasses offer that will aid with the project.
The students then gave their reasons for using Meta's smart glasses, suggesting that the hardware looks like everyday glasses, unlike the other wearables, and does not come off as a device. This makes it easier to dox strangers with the device. The second reason for opting for the particular wearable was the price, which is $300 and much cheaper than similar products.
Facial recognition software and the use of hardware to access strangers' personal information raise serious concerns about privacy and protecting oneself from situations like these. The two students suggested users can protect against such information access by reaching out to data brokers, opting out of search engines, and requesting data removal.
