Big Tech’s ‘pervert’ glasses take another hit

Pawel Szydlowski has been building apps for years, but it’s his latest app, ZuckOff, that is currently blowing up around the world for highlighting one solution to a pervasive privacy issue.

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The app can detect whether there are any artificial intelligence-powered glasses equipped with a camera in a user’s vicinity. Though the name is a nod to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, whose Meta Glasses line has been dubbed “pervert glasses” by its critics, the software is designed to detect all brands of smart glasses. The 30-year-old Polish app developer said he started the app after he noticed more and more content on the internet showing people being recorded for prank videos without their consent.

“I discovered I was progressively getting more annoyed by them,” he said.

The app works by passively detecting Bluetooth signals emitted from the devices. The signals have specific identifiers for different kinds of tech. When the app detects a known signature for glasses, it notifies the user of the glasses’ proximity, but the app does not let users know whether the glasses are actively recording. 

The app is free and has been downloaded by more than 35,000 people since its launch, Szydlowski said. Its only paid features allow users to scan and receive live alerts while not on the app, add the app to a homescreen widget on iPhone, and download detection data. 

There are limitations to the app, as the software has to know what it’s looking for in order to flag it. But Szydlowski said he receives feedback through a community reporting feature in the app, allowing him to flag “exotic glasses that just came out” that otherwise wouldn’t have been caught. Those tips have even come from people that work in hardware for smart glasses manufacturers, giving Szydlowski the ability to add the manufacturer ID to his app before the glasses hit the streets. 

“The idea behind this project was to at least have a way to do it,” Szydlowski said. “It may not be perfect, but I think it is better than nothing.”

Szydlowski has been making apps for years, starting when he was a student in Dublin, Ireland, when he designed an app with the sole purpose of tracking the only bus that could take him to his university. He’s dabbled in the privacy space before with his apps, including one that could blur a user’s screen if it detected another person was peering over a user’s shoulder.

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After releasing ZuckOff in the Apple App Store in early August, Szydlowski said that he’s learned even more about the privacy concerns the glasses tech has caused around the world, some of which he’s gleaned through lawsuits in the United States. One such case, a proposed class-action federal lawsuit in Northern California filed last month, alleges that Meta’s glasses recorded and shared intimate images without users’ consent. The complaint also references a February report by Swedish outlet Svenska Dagbladet, which revealed that Kenyan subcontractors could access private content to train Meta’s artificial intelligence. 

The Information reported on Sept. 15 that Meta plans to release a new line of smart glasses without a camera. But Szydlowski is not convinced the change addresses those same concerns of unwanted surveillance, and noted his app could still detect the new product.

“You can get a lot of info on people by just listening, so if a device like this has a microphone, it’s the same situation,” he said. “It’s literally a wire tape.”

Work in smart glasses hardware and want to talk? Contact tech reporter Matthew Brown securely at [email protected] or matthewbrownsfgate.11 on Signal.