Students demo how easy doxing is with Meta’s smart glasses

Two Harvard students recently demonstrated how Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses can be used to identify strangers and collect their personal information from the internet, highlighting the ease with which privacy can be compromised through AR glasses.

They gathered strangers’ names and phone numbers within minutes of looking at them.

How did they do it?
AnhPhu Nguyen and Caine Ardayfio developed a tool called I-XRAY, which added facial recognition technology to the Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses. Once the glasses took a person’s picture, the program ran it through public databases like PimEyes and FastPeopleSearch and then used a large language model (LLM) to compile information.

Nguyen and Ardayfio could immediately access all publicly available information about strangers, including their social media profiles, photos and even addresses. They even convinced an unsuspecting woman at a train station that they had met earlier at an event. The two students also told another stranger her home address and parents’ names.

The students claim the purpose of the demo video posted on X is to raise awareness, not to misuse the technology. They said they wouldn’t release code for the program.

Concerns
Meta says their smart glasses have a light that comes on while recording video. However, the project highlights the dangers of facial recognition, showing how easily current tech can invade privacy.

While there are ways to limit exposure, such as opting out of face search databases and enabling two-factor authentication, it’s hard to completely remove one’s online information.