Students adapt Meta’s smart glasses to dox strangers in real time
Two students have made a pair of smart glasses with facial recognition technology to discover the private information of strangers.
In a video demonstration, one of the Harvard students is shown using the technology to quickly discover details about the woman sitting near him at a train station in Boston.
“Wait, are you Betsy?” he asks her. Betsy is a complete stranger and he hasn’t heard of her until seconds before.
“I think I met you through the Cambridge Community Foundation, right?”
She smiles, stands up to greet him and shakes his hand.
AnhPhu Nguyen and Caine Ardayfio made the demonstration to show how easily smart glasses can be used maliciously.
“Are we ready for a world where our data is exposed at a glance?” Mr Nguyen asked in a post on X.
Mr Nguyen, who studies human augmentation, and Mr Ardayfio, who studies physics, created the facial recognition glasses using tools that are readily available on the market.
They used a pair of Meta’s smart Ray Bans and streamed its live recordings to a computer, where AI was used to spot when the glasses were looking at a face.
Using that first, live picture, the computer looked up more pictures of the person and then scoured voter registration databases and news articles.
Using those publicly available sources, the two students were able to quickly discover people’s names, phone numbers, home addresses and even relatives’ names.
Meta’s smart Ray Ban sunglasses. File pic: Reuters
In a video shared online, the experiment is repeated over and over, with Mr Nguyen and Mr Ardayfio testing it out on Harvard’s campus to the shock of their fellow students.
“What about John and Susan?” they asked one woman.
“They are my parents…” she replied in horror.
Read more: Facebook and Ray-Ban launch range of smart glasses
“This is meant to be a demonstration to raise awareness of what’s possible today with consumer tech,” said Mr Nguyen, adding the pair won’t be releasing the code for how they built the programme.
“It’s too dangerous,” Mr Nguyen told one of his followers.
Meta told Sky News the Ray Bans do not come equipped with facial recognition technology and will also make a sound and show a light to indicate to others that the glasses are recording.
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The sound and recording light cannot be disabled by the user, and if the light is completely covered, the user will be asked to remove obstacles before taking a photo or recording a video.
“From what we can see, these students are simply using publicly-available facial recognition software on a computer that would work with photos taken on any camera, phone or recording device,” said a Meta spokesperson.
Charlie Kirk has been posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Donald Trump.
The USA’s highest civilian honour was received by the conservative activist’s widow, Erika, at the White House.
Mr Kirk, 31, was fatally shot on 10 September while speaking at an event at Utah Valley University.
He founded Turning Point USA and toured American university campuses, debating students about current affairs.
Erika Kirk at the White House. Pic: Reuters
Erika Kirk and Donald Trump. Pic: Reuters
Addressing those attending the ceremony in the White House rose garden, the US president said they were there to “honour and remember a fearless warrior for liberty” and a “beloved leader who galvanised the next generation”.
He said Mr Kirk’s name was being entered “forever into the eternal roster of true American heroes”.
Mr Trump described Charlie Kirk as an “American patriot of the deepest conviction, the finest quality and the highest calibre”.
He said his nation had been “robbed” of an “extraordinary champion”.
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Has Charlie Kirk become a MAGA ‘martyr’?
And Mr Trump said Mr Kirk was assassinated in the “prime of his life for boldly speaking the truth, for living his faith, and relentlessly fighting for a better and stronger America”.
The ceremony coincided with what would have been Mr Kirk’s 32nd birthday.
Mr Trump described Erika Kirk, now head of Turning Point USA, as someone who had “endured unspeakable hardship with unbelievable strength”.
Read more:
What do we know about Erika Kirk?
Charlie Kirk’s movement is growing in wake of his assassination
Charlie Kirk. File pic: AP
A 22-year-old man, Tyler Robinson, from the city of Washington in Utah has been charged with Mr Kirk’s murder. Prosecutors said they would seek the death penalty.
At a memorial event held at a stadium in Arizona, Erika Kirk told an enormous crowd she forgave her husband’s killer.
“The answer to hate is not hate,” she said.
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