Two Harvard students have created a privacy nightmare, according to 404 Media. Real-time facial recognition smart glasses, which pull up names, contacts, addresses, and more about a complete stranger just by looking at them.
On top of the facial recognition software capabilities, the students’ project is even more eye-opening considering the hardware they’re using to run it: Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses.
The students – AnhPhu Nguyen and Caine Ardayfio – say they won’t be releasing the product nor the software behind it. The project, titled I-XRAY, is meant to raise awareness about what is possible with today’s technology. In fact, it’s something that Big Tech companies like Google and Facebook have long had the power to do, but they haven’t released such capabilities due to the high potential for misuse.
How it works
Nguyen and Ardayfio were able to create I-XRAY, thanks, in part, to Meta’s smart glasses and PimEyes’ facial recognition software.
While there are a few facial recognition search engines out there, PimEyes is perhaps the largest one that makes its technology accessible by the public. Users can simply upload a photo to PimEyes, and using facial recognition, the service scans the web for images of the individual in the photo.
Using the information from PimEyes, I-XRAY can then identify the individual and find out personal information on them by scanning the internet for articles and through data brokers like FastPeopleSearch. This information can include full names, phone numbers, home addresses, social media profiles, and more.
The entire system is automated to start pulling this data as soon as the smart glasses detect an individual’s face in the frame. The students uploaded a video to social media to show the process.
Meta pointed out in their response to the I-XRAY project that any similar camera product can be adapted to utilize PimEyes in this way. There’s nothing particularly unique about Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses’ technology itself that allowed this project to happen.
However, Nyugen said there was a specific reason that the two students chose Meta’s smart glasses: The creepiness factor of being able to dox complete strangers with hardware that looks just like a normal, everyday glasses. Unlike many wearables, the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses don’t look like a tech device. Furthermore, their $300 price point puts them in a fairly affordable range compared to other similar products.
How to protect yourself
As previously mentioned, there isn’t a public product or service out there that can do this – yet. But, if you are concerned about the potential to dox individuals on the fly like this, the two Harvard students explained how to protect yourself.
According to Nguyen and Ardayfio, it’s as simple as reaching out to these data brokers to get your information removed.
For example, PimEyes provides an opt-out page where people can get their images removed from their facial recognition search engine. Data brokers like FastPeopleSearch also usually provide forms where users can request data removal from the service.
