They better get ready on finding these idiots because now they got people who remove the LED lights.
this post was submitted on 29 Jul 2026
993 points (99.1% liked)
Technology
86745 readers
2481 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related news or articles.
- Be excellent to each other!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
- Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.
Approved Bots
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
I love the fact lately meta glasses are called pervert glasses constantly.
I personally hate the fact that capatilists have fucked our trust so much we can't have augmented reality glasses. I was really looking forward to that.
These camera lenses are nowhere near AR.
MS HoloLens was the closest we got and it was targeted at businesses. Flopped badly. Died.
It wouldn't have flopped if they didn't just gave up on it. They were so far ahead of everyone else but just like they did with WP, they refused to continue building up its potential.
If someone other than Microsoft managed it, it might have gone farther, honestly. Nobody kills a good idea as efficiently as Microsoft.
MS usually does it before anyone else, releases a product, fails to market it, product dies to exec cutback, then three years later Apple does it and it's amazing.
If they were only just that, AR.
Instead they’re “record everyone around you without their consent and post the footage online without their consent to be commented on and shared by others” glasses.
We need an Open Source version of these glasses. It's the only solution that will work.
Open source doesnt solve them having a camera and recording everything.
As usual we advertise the Meta Glasses detecting app:
Glasses Nearby
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ch.pocketpc.nearbyglasses
iOS version: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/nearby-glasses-original/id6761056896
I see some others in the iOS app store that claim to detect nearby "smart" glasses via BLE. I have not tested any of them, so I have no opinion on their usefulness, reliability, privacy, etc:
Nearby Glasses (same name, different app): https://apps.apple.com/us/app/nearby-glasses/id6776279207
Nearby Lens: Glasses Detector: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/nearby-lens-glasses-detector/id6760046620
NoGlasshole: Glasses Detector: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/noglasshole-glasses-detector/id6760988897
Nearby Glasses Ray-Ban Scanner (in-app subscription required): https://apps.apple.com/us/app/nearby-glasses-ray-ban-scanner/id6760216782
While useful, I would not want my device to be constantly pinging every device around it with wifi, bluetooth, or whatever other radio signal, on the off chance it might catch someone wearing the most groucho marx looking spyglasses on the planet when my own eyes can do that for me.
If not for the sake of my battery life, then for the same reason why I dont leave my bluetooth or wifi on- less avenues for people nearby to gain easy remote access to my device.
Yeah, I don't think that's how you'd use it.
You'd see some weirdo in wayfarers and load up the app to check. Simple.
I don't even trust the "only give permission to use [camera/mic/bluetooth/location] while the app is active" setting.
I would not enter a public space with my phone lit up like a EM Christmas tree, sonar pinging every receiver in sight.
Let alone giving some rando app the access to every piece of NFC/radio comms on the off chance it can positively identify someone's spy glasses, because that means if they are, ive just given their spy glasses my phone's identifiers, and I'm spending more time near them and more time to possibly end up on some shady company's panopticon server.
It's like the people suggesting shining a laser into a flock camera, it might destroy a bit of the sensor, but they've also put a highly visible beam of light directly from themselves to it.
I don't think the app does that, it's scanning for pings, not sending out pings. Listening for signals from Meta glasses.... it's not listening to connect with anything, it's just passively listening. Also it only uses blue tooth... I don't know what you're going on about with radio and internet signals.
So you have to leave bluetooth on, which means your device is broadcasting an active bluetooth signal.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/06/14/opinion/bluetooth-wireless-tracking-privacy.html
If any random shop can use any phone's active bluetooth to track and profile every user that's i side or nearby, I don't want to have bluetooth active when in public. Genuinely not worth it just to fi d some glasshole pervert when my own eyes can do the job without giving away any more of my data. That's what I'm on about.
So you have to leave Bluetooth on
No, you can spot a weirdo turn blue tooth on and confirm it, then turn it off.
Look, I don't think this app is for someone like you.
Oh I know it isn't, because I trust google as far as I can throw a datacenter.
But I'm still struggling to see the use of an app that makes you stop and go "let me ask my app to turn on my remote connection feature and search to see if this person is wearing the pervert glasses." instead of using my eyes and going "That guy looks like he's wearing pervert glasses, I'm leaving the area."
I like how these only became a problem because Meta made them which meant a bunch of morons bought it.
Hidden and pinhole cameras have been a commercially available thing for decades, even on glasses.
Hell they even made one as a kids toy you could buy.
only became a problem because Meta made them
Anyone who remember "glassholes" knows this isn't new. Wearing a camera on your literal eyes is still a step too far in this otherwise compromised world.
But yes, I think the big issue here, as others pointed out, has to do with the nature of the company producing them. That'd be especially important for a place like DEFCON, which is all about securing your data.
Well, morons bought it and the device is directly connected to a data harvesting company. I think that has more to do with it. One lone weirdo with a hidden camera and a home server isn't the same kind of boogeyman
everyone remember google glasses: spying, watching porn was all anyone could think someone is wearing it.
Interesting enough, while a big flop in the retail market (due to bad reception like you mentioned) I believe they ended up being quite successful in the automated logistics space.
load more comments
(1 replies)
Hidden and pinhole cameras have been a commercially available thing for decades, even on glasses.
And more or less equally problematic?
It's not the cameras that are the problem, however, it's the companies behind them that I take issue with. It's one thing to be spied on by a camera, it's another thing when data collected from that camera feed is then sold to anyone who is buying. That's what I have a problem with. The cameras themselves aren't the issue.
Honestly, they should not ban them, and then just low-key encourage enterprising attendees to pwn the devices and any attached accounts. That would be delightful.
load more comments
(7 replies)
All hidden cameras should be illegal, I don’t care about your “hands free convenience”
This is like anti pervert laws 101
Yep. If you want to record everything going on from your POV, strap a GoPro to your head and see if people's moods change about it. If they clearly don't want that, they don't want the "convenient" hidden cameras either. Simple as that.
load more comments
(1 replies)
Defcon is not the place I’d want to wear something like that and make myself a target. Of course, I’d be embarrassed to wear them anywhere, but afraid at Defcon.
Shit, I’d be scared to go anywhere near defcon with any device.
I'd go in with an abacus and a notepad.
“Hey, where’d all my beads go?!”
load more comments
(1 replies)
load more comments
(8 replies)
load more comments
(4 replies)
I’d like to know how well they handle being exposed to IR and/or UV LED flares.
Once that experiment has been performed, try a targeted laser turret.
Human eyes are also sensitive to high intensity IR and UV light so you will also blind a human wearing them. Depending on the wavelength, permanently.
So what? They were okay with wearing glasses anyway.
I'm already in favor of using high-powered lasers, you don't have to keep convincing me
I meant to include ‘strobe’ in the definition. A low duty cycle would cut down on the biological impact, and rapid, random cycling would help blind the sensors as they try to compensate.
load more comments
(1 replies)
conference organizers said they have imposed a ban on “Meta-style glasses with recording capabilities.”
Dammit. I was hoping they explicitly called them "pervert glasses" like the headline suggested.
load more comments
(2 replies)
San Diego ComiCon banned them, and Dragoncon is going to ban them.
So have shirt that says, "If you can read this, you may be recorded for your safety and for quality assurance purposes." That's what corporations do, right? Should solve the concerns?
load more comments
(3 replies)
view more: next ›