Most people walking around these days is carrying or wearing at least some kind of smart technology.
Phones, tablets, watches, earbuds, you name it.
Smart glasses have been on everyone’s radar for several years now, and even though being able to see your notifications, emails, and stuff without having to check a watch or look down at your phone sounds cool, they haven’t taken off with the general public.
One reason could be the concern that smart glasses could be able to pull up the personal information of people standing or walking nearby.
Experts have warned this could be a potential issue for some time, but a recent experiment by Harvard University students proved that it could definitely be a reality.
AnhPhu Nguyen and Caine Ardayfi implanted advanced facial recognition software into a pair of Meta’s Ray Ban smart glasses, and found that they were quickly and easily able to look up the personal details of people passing by on the street.
The glasses run other faces through its built-in camera and facial recognition software, PimEyes.
The name is fed into a large language model (LLM) that sources identifying information like social media, career details, addresses, and even phone numbers.
Their project is called “I-XRAY,” and Nguyen says they started it because they thought it would be “interesting and cool.”
“A lot of people reacted that, oh, this is obviously really cool, we can use this for networking, I can use this to play pranks on my friends, make funny videos…”
Their fellow students immediately began pointing out the potential pitfall of tech like this – including criminal activity like stalking, harassment, and doxxing.
They’re not planning to release the tech and instead hope the video detailing their project will serve as a cautionary tale.
“Our goal is to demonstrate the current capabilities of smart glasses, face search engines, LLMs, and public databases, raising awareness that extracting someone’s home address and other personal details from just their face on the street is possible today.”
Are we ready for a world where our data is exposed at a glance? @CaineArdayfio and I offer an answer to protect yourself here: pic.twitter.com/Oo35TxBNtD
— AnhPhu Nguyen (@AnhPhuNguyen1) September 30, 2024
Both Facebook and Google have chosen not to move forward with similar projects due to concern over facial recognition technology and the risks of having it openly available to the public.
It does seem like it’s only a matter of time until someone with less scruples does release a product like this, though, and then it will be up to the public to respond.
Which…yikes, right?
If you enjoyed that story, check out what happened when a guy gave ChatGPT $100 to make as money as possible, and it turned out exactly how you would expect.
