Pawel Szydlowski was spooked after he saw videos of people using smart glasses to record and identify unsuspecting strangers.
So the 30-year-old Polish software developer created an app that he says can detect nearby smart glasses and estimate their distance.
“There’s a need for such an application,” he told Business Insider.
The app, which Szydlowski calls “Zuckoff,” a tawdry portmanteau, has garnered 5,000 users since its launch on Apple’s App Store last month.
On the app, the main scanning screen gives users the likely proximity of nearby smart glasses. A “Zuckoff Pro” version allows users to run the app and get notifications for nearby recording smart glasses when the app isn’t open.
It comes at a time many regard as an inflection point for Meta’s AI smart glasses, as antipathy toward the surreptitious use of the tech grows, and the company embarks on a PR blitz to assuage those who fear for their privacy.
This month, Meta bricked thousands of glasses after discovering that the built-in LED lights, which should turn on automatically when the glasses are recording, had been tampered with.
Higher-ups at Meta, meanwhile, have tried to make the case that the glasses are safe. Meta Chief Technology Officer Andrew Bosworth said in a recent Instagram video that “we designed this camera to be noticed by the people around you.”
However, those efforts haven’t prevented misuse of the smart glasses altogether — or convinced every skeptic. Szydlowski’s app, which detects Bluetooth signatures broadcast by smart glasses, is a potential alternative solution.
Unwelcome pickup artists
Szydlowski came from an “earlier era of YouTube,” he said, where on-camera pranks occurred in a paradigm of at least minimal privacy.
If someone clearly didn’t want to be recorded, many creators blurred their faces. And the unlucky subjects of spontaneous pranks were, of course, aware of the camera that was thrust in their face.
Something shifted, though, with the advent of smart glasses. Pickup artists still filmed themselves practicing their skills on women, but now the women could not always discern that they were being recorded.
What’s more, Szydlowski noticed how obviously uncomfortable subjects rarely had their faces blurred in videos he saw. And when he checked the comments, he saw users doxxing the people in the videos.
“With this type of content, I’ve seen a lot of emotions in me,” he said.
For Szydlowski, the solution was relatively simple. If tech companies weren’t going to ensure that their glasses were clearly recording, he was going to give people a way to know for sure they were.
“We as a society have the right to at least know that someone is recording,” he said.
How the app works
Szydlowski said he started by physically obtaining various models of smart glasses, then examining the Bluetooth signals they broadcast to determine their Bluetooth “fingerprint.”
These broadcasts can include universally unique identifiers that identify specific Bluetooth services supported by the device. Some devices have Bluetooth services actually called “Meta” or “Ray Bans,” Szydlowski said.
Szydlowski said the Zuckoff app compares several pieces of information broadcast by a device, including its UUID and manufacturer identifier, to determine whether it matches a known pair of smart glasses.
“If the unique identifier matches, and also if the manufacturer identifier matches, then we have like an ultimate combo there,” he said.
Continuing progress
Szydlowski applauded Meta’s recent efforts to improve privacy controls on the glasses. “Thumbs up to Zuck,” he said.
Still, he said, the company has a ways to go to convince people that the glasses are privacy-conscious.
Szydlowski said Meta could take a page from Apple and Google’s response to concerns that AirTags and other Bluetooth trackers could be used to secretly track people. The two companies developed an industry standard that allows iPhones and Android devices to warn users when an unknown Bluetooth tracker appears to be traveling with them.
Smart-glasses makers could adopt a similar system, Szydlowski said, allowing people’s phones to alert them when the devices are nearby.
“If they really care about that part not being abused, they would go that way,” he said.
Szydlowski said regulators from the European Union have contacted him for more information about the app.
“We have a way to address problems, of course, faster than government in some cases,” he said.
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