Meta's Smart Glasses Repurposed For Covert Facial Recognition (404media.co)

(Wednesday October 02, 2024 @11:20AM (msmash) from the privacy-woes dept.)

Two Harvard students have developed smart glasses [1]with facial recognition capabilities , sparking debate over privacy and surveillance. The project, dubbed I-XRAY, uses Meta's Ray-Ban smart glasses coupled with facial recognition software to identify strangers and retrieve personal information about them. AnhPhu Nguyen and Caine Ardayfio, the creators, tested the technology on unsuspecting individuals in public spaces. The glasses scan faces, match them against online databases, and display personal details on a smartphone within seconds. The students claim their project aims to raise awareness about potential privacy risks.

[1] https://www.404media.co/someone-put-facial-recognition-tech-onto-metas-smart-glasses-to-instantly-dox-strangers/

paywall :-( (Score:2)

by ArsenneLupin ( 766289 )

WTF?

rofl (Score:1)

by retchdog ( 1319261 )

"The students claim their project aims to raise awareness about potential privacy risks."

uh-huh. so close, let me fix it:

"The students hope their project raises their hirability and starting salary when they apply to companies involved in privacy risks."

hahahahahaha

Re: (Score:2)

by cayenne8 ( 626475 )

Sounds like we need another set of students to develop a [1]"Scramble Suit" [wikipedia.org] to defeat all the facial and other recognition systems coming on line....

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Scanner_Darkly

Just now? (Score:2)

by Turkinolith ( 7180598 )

I'm honestly surprised we're just getting to this point. To be fair, when discussing augmented glasses, contacts, or eye replacements, facial recognition and information overlays has always been part of that. (Pop culture reference: Shadowrun)

How is this bad? (Score:2)

by Virtucon ( 127420 )

In the US, you can be recorded unless you're in an area where privacy is normally considered "private", i.e., your home, a bathroom, private property, etc. When a gov't does it, it can be restricted behavior based on laws and court rulings but a private citizen can record your activities when you're in a public area. If linking that with software and an Internet connection bothers you, change the laws.

In an era of cellphones and augmented vision technology, is anybody surprised that the linkage of that tech

Even students get into repugnant surveillance (Score:2)

by Rosco P. Coltrane ( 209368 )

Don't they have better and more noble things to do than take a piece of dystopia technology from a disgusting big data company and create more dystopia?

Help with Disability? (Score:1)

by Cerilus ( 191314 )

For someone like me who has a terrible time remembering faces and names, augmented reality with facial recognition could replace the defective & underperforming 'wetware' that I have. Like a hearing aid for those with ear problems, or glasses for those with retina or lens problems. These things are socially acceptable, probably because there's accepted norms for their use.

Feels like if the use case is to compensate for a disability, that's ok; but if you're using something that enriches a third party, o

Fucking Finally (Score:2)

by logicnazi ( 169418 )

This is the feature that makes smart glasses worth using -- giving you seem less information on who you are talking to -- it's just all the tech makers have been too cowardly to actually enable it.

And no bullshit about how this harms privacy. Your privacy is as or perhaps more invaded by the tons of cameras in stores, atms etc recording and saving your image. This just makes that fact salient.

I agree it's important to make sure the devices alert when they are storing recordings but facial recognition is u

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