A report by 404 Media has highlighted concerning ways Meta’s smart glasses could potentially be utilized to infringe on individuals’ privacy. The report reveals that two Harvard students, AnhPhu Nguyen and Caine Ardayfio, have employed facial recognition technology and a large language model to uncover personal details about individuals, including names, occupations, addresses, phone numbers, family member details, and partial Social Security Numbers. This setup, called I-XRAY, collects such information from various online sources, and the process occurs automatically.
Although this kind of operation could be conducted with various cameras, Nguyen and Ardayfio chose Meta’s smart glasses due to their resemblance to regular eyewear and built-in camera feature. A demonstration video shows the students using the glasses to quickly gather information about people they encounter in public, addressing them by name, discussing their professional details, and referencing past interactions based on data obtained through the facial recognition system.
The video explanation details that the students stream video from the glasses to Instagram, monitored by a computer program. Once the AI detects a face, the I-XRAY system retrieves additional photos and public data about the individual from the web. This information is then sent back to a mobile app developed by Nguyen and Ardayfio, with the entire process taking only a few minutes.
Nguyen and Ardayfio informed 404 Media that I-XRAY was developed to raise awareness about the potential applications of such technology, and they have no intention of releasing the code used. Nguyen noted that while some individuals saw potential uses for networking or pranking, others expressed significant safety concerns, such as the risk of someone using the technology to track a person to their home.
In a Google Doc explaining the technical aspects of their system, Nguyen and Ardayfio provide resources on how to remove personal information from the services used by I-XRAY. They also suggest that those worried about their privacy might consider using personal information removal services like DeleteMe or Incogni.
This technology itself is not novel; 404 Media notes that Meta and Google have possessed facial recognition capabilities for years but have not made them publicly accessible. However, the ability to utilize such technology through seemingly ordinary smart glasses (which feature a light to indicate recording) raises new concerns.
When approached for comment, Meta referred to specific terms of service for Facebook View, the complementary app for the smart glasses. These terms emphasize user responsibility for legal compliance, proper notice, or required consents under various laws related to recording and biometric data. Users are also cautioned against tampering with or obscuring the glasses’ recording signals. Additionally, Facebook View is designated solely for personal, non-commercial use, with further restrictions against disassembly, reverse engineering, and commercial exploitation of the service’s software and capabilities.
