This App Tells You When a Person Nearby is Wearing Smart Glasses
Many predict that smart glasses will explode in popularity in the near future, but the wearable technology poses numerous issues that a new app is attempting to mitigate.
Nearby Glasses tells users when someone in their proximity is wearing a pair of Meta Ray-Bans or another brand of smart glasses. Apple, Google, and Samsung are all reportedly working on their own devices.
404 Media reports that the app uses Bluetooth to look for tiny amounts of data called “advertising frames” that the devices emit as part of their normal operation.
Yves Jeanrenaud, the app developer and sociologist, tells 404 that he made the app in response to media coverage about how certain people, sometimes labeled ‘glassholes’, have been utilizing smart glasses.
“I consider it to be a tiny part of resistance against surveillance tech,” Jeanrenaud says “This is a tech solution to a social problem exaggerated by tech. I do not want to promote techsolutionism nor do I want people to feel falsely secure. It’s still imperfect.”
The app is available on the Google Play Store or on GitHub. 404 Media notes that some users may need to tweak their phone’s settings but it should send a notification when it detects a pair of smart glasses. The app’s description says after identifying a device, a user “may act accordingly.”
Jeanrenaud points to one specific story about men entering massage parlors and attempting to discuss sex with the female workers. The woman don’t know they’re being filmed by the men’s glasses and the videos are later posted to social media.
“The videos show how Meta has built an entire supply chain for dangerous, privacy-violating content on the internet,” writes Emanuel Maiberg for 404. “It sells glasses that allow people to surreptitiously film others in public and operates a social network where inflammatory, outrageous content is rewarded and monetized.”
People and organizations are beginning to take note of the spying spectacles: Royal Caribbean, a cruise liner company, recently banned smart glasses from certain part of its ships. While the U.S. Air Force banned personnel from wearing smart glasses while in uniform.
Jeanrenaud says he hopes his app can fight back against “misogynistic behavior and rape culture.”
Image credits: Header photo licensed via Depositphotos.
