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Title: New App Alerts You If Someone Nearby Is Wearing Smart Glasses

Link: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/26/03/03/23432...

A new Android app called Nearby Glasses alerts users when Bluetooth signals
from smart glasses are detected nearby. The Android app, called Nearby
Glasses, "launches at a time as there is an increasing resistance against
always-recording or listening devices, which critics say process information
about nearby people who do not give their consent," reports TechCrunch. From
the report: Yves Jeanrenaud, who made the app, first spoke to 404 Media about
the project and said he was in part inspired to make Nearby Glasses after
reading the independent publication's reporting into wearable surveillance
devices, including how Meta's Ray-Ban smart glasses have been used in
immigration raids and to film and harass sex workers. On the app's project
page, Jeanrenaud described smart glasses as an "intolerable intrusion,
consent neglecting, horrible piece of tech." Jeanrenaud told TechCrunch in an
email that his motivation came from "witnessing the sheer scale and inhumane
nature of the abuse these smart glasses are involved in." Jeanrenaud also
cited Meta's decision to implement face recognition as a default feature in
its smart glasses, "which I consider to be a huge floodgate pushed open for
all kinds of privacy-invasive behavior." The app works by listening for
nearby Bluetooth signals that contain a publicly assigned identifier unique
to the Bluetooth device's manufacturer. If the app detects a Bluetooth signal
from a nearby hardware device made by Meta or Snap, the app will send the
user an alert. (The app also allows users to add their own specific Bluetooth
identifiers, allowing the user to detect a broader range of wearable
surveillance gadgetry.) Further reading: Meta's AI Display Glasses Reportedly
Share Intimate Videos With Human Moderators

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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