Feed: Slashdot
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Title: 'Zuckoff' App Detects Meta Smartglasses, as Meta Plans Camera-Free
Version, Loses Money, and Offers Social Media Subscriptions

Link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/09/17/0452...

The New York Post reports: A new app called Zuckoff can detect if a user is
near someone with Meta's creepy AI-powered glasses, which have drawn
criticism for enabling creeps to record video of women without their consent.
Programmer Pawel Szydlowski says tales of dirtbags recording themselves
perving on women or harassing strangers prompted him to launch the app...
Zuckoff - which detects Bluetooth signatures broadcast by smart glasses and
can estimate their distance - has gained some 5,000 users since it hit
Apple's App Store last month, according to Business Insider. "There's a need
for such an application," the 30-year-old Polish techie told the outlet,
adding that European Union regulators have contacted him for more info about
his app. "We as a society have the right to at least know that someone is
recording," Szydlowski said... Earlier this month, the tech giant disabled
thousands of glasses it found had been tampered with to keep a small light
off that indicates the device is recording. It's already #77 on the iPhone's
list of best-selling utilities apps. In a related story, "After accusations
of selling 'perv glasses,' Meta prepares to sell a pair without a camera,"
writes TechCrunch, citing a report from The Information. The glasses include
six built-in microphones so users can communicate with the chatbot, as well
as a button on the side of the glasses that, when pressed, activates the AI
system... Meta's Reality Labs, which is responsible for developing its smart
glasses line, is still losing a gargantuan amount of money, as its earnings
report from April revealed. In fact, Meta stock is off 13% over the last 12
months, reports Yahoo Finance. So Tuesday Meta announced subscription
services for its social apps as "part of Meta's push to drive additional
revenue from the billions it's investing in AI data centers and model
development." The plans, which start at $2.99 per month for single-product
plans, $7.99 for individual bundles, and $14.99 for creator and business
bundles, provide a number of features for users looking to get more out of
their Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp accounts. Instagram Plus and Facebook
Plus allow users to keep their stories up for 48 hours instead of 24, send
animated super reactions and super hearts to stories, preview stories without
showing up as a viewer in other users' lists, and more. WhatsApp Plus lets
you share exclusive stickers, get exclusive ringtones for contacts, and pin
up to 20 different chats. Meta One also includes Core and Premium user plans
that offer the features found in the single-product plans, along with
increased AI usage limits for images and videos. The social media giant is
also offering creator and business plans... that it says include capabilities
such as enhanced profiles, automatic follow invitations to users that
interact with your content, and increased access to the Meta Business Agent,
which can respond on your behalf. When Instagram head Adam Mosseri announced
on Threads that the plans brought "more features and more AI across
Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook, and Meta AI," writer Joe Hill drew 13,300
likes for his response. "That's sweet--so pay a fee, get more AI, pay
nothing, get a little less AI. Can we work out a deal where you pay ME and I
get no AI at all?"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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