Harvard Students Demonstrate How Meta Glasses Can Help Access Stranger’s Private Information

Two Harvard students demonstrated how Meta smart glasses can be utilized to access an individual’s private information.

“AnhPhu Nguyen and Caine Ardayfio, who are engineering students at the Ivy League school, posted a chilling demonstration of what their program, dubbed I-Xray, can do,” the New York Post reports.

“Are we ready for a world where our data is exposed at a glance?” Nguyen asked.

“We built glasses that let you identify anybody on the street,” Nguyen said.

“The information our tool collects from just a photo of your face is staggering,” he added.

“To use it, you just put the glasses on then as you walk by people the glasses will detect when somebody’s face is in frame. This photo is used to analyze them and after a few seconds their personal information pops up on your phone,” he continued.

“So here’s how it works. 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 relative’s names. And it’s all fed back to an app we wrote on our phone,” he said.

“So, how can you protect yourself?” a message at the end of the presentation read.

“We explain the technology and provide a guide to remove yourself from being searchable in the description,” it added.

WATCH:

Are we ready for a world where our data is exposed at a glance? @CaineArdayfio and I offer an answer to protect yourself here:https://t.co/LhxModhDpk pic.twitter.com/Oo35TxBNtD

— AnhPhu Nguyen (@AnhPhuNguyen1) September 30, 2024

From the New York Post:

Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses can record up to three minutes of video.

The I-Xray program works by uploading the footage from the glasses to PimEyes, a facial recognition tool that uses AI to match a recorded face to any publicly available images on the internet.

I-Xray then prompts another AI tool that scours public databases to retrieve personal details about the individual in the image, including their name, address, phone number and even information about relatives.

This information is then sent to the I-Xray mobile app.

In the video, posted to X Monday, Nguyen and Ardayfio are seen identifying classmates in real-time and approaching strangers in public using information I-Xray gathered to act as if they know them.

NEW APP USING META SMART GLASSES CAN EASILY IDENTIFY STRANGERS

2 Harvard students have demonstrated how Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses, combined with a tool called I-XRAY, can easily identify strangers and access personal details like home addresses.

This chilling program… pic.twitter.com/gSgS2s4lxx

— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) October 3, 2024

Per Daily Mail:

In request to comment, a Meta spokesperson stressed to MailOnline that the glasses had to be modified heavily so that they could perform like this.

The Meta spokesperson also said the AI and facial recognition element of the system ‘would work with photos taken on any camera, phone or recording device’.

However, phones and other recording devices have an element of transparency that arguably Meta’s smart glasses do not.

With Meta’s glasses, the camera is concealed in the frames – and the average person on the street may not realise their function is to record.

When the glasses are filming, a noise sounds and a small LED next to one of the lenses lights up – although users would have to explain what these mean.

Jake Moore, security advisor at ESET, said ‘glasses enabled to film the public is a ‘worryingly dangerous development’.

‘We are seeing technology advancing into areas that are simply not required,’ Moore told MailOnline.

ADVERTISEMENT

‘Furthermore, when they are adapted to recognise individuals it becomes a scary tool that could easily be abused.’

The Meta spokesperson said: ‘To be clear, Ray-Ban Meta glasses do not have facial recognition technology.