The creator of Nearby Glasses made the app after reading 404 Media's coverage of how people are using Meta's Ray-Bans smartglasses to film people without their knowledge or consent. “I consider it to be a tiny part of resistance against surveillance tech.”
  • NihilsineNefas@slrpnk.netEnglish
    9·
    15 hours ago

    Yeah, just leave your Bluetooth on and permanently scanning, it’ll help identify those creeps that walk around with cameras so you can… Avoid them? Confront them and get yourself recorded live? Have your phone breached and all your data accessed because you left your Bluetooth open and scanning in a public space?

    Best solution is to know what these glassholes’ gear looks like and avoiding them the analogue way.

    • SleeplessCityLights@programming.devEnglish
      3·
      9 hours ago

      That is how Bluetooth works. Its open and scanning for your devices. And another devices nearby too. If you ever ride public transit you notice that random device try to auto pair with your phone.

      • NihilsineNefas@slrpnk.netEnglish
        1·
        7 hours ago

        One of the many reasons why mine is never on, and part of the reason why I went for a phone with a headphone jack

    • brygphilomena@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      5·
      11 hours ago

      I mean… That’s like 95% of people anyway. I doubt most people turn off Bluetooth when they aren’t using it. It’s left on so when they pull out their headphones they just connect.

    • infeeeee@lemmy.zipEnglish
      5·
      13 hours ago

      What if it’s behind you? You can’t see it even if you know what it’s like while your phone can scan it.

      I think we are not far away from the point where it will be virtually indistinguishable from regular glasses with any type of frame.

      Defense against airtag spying works the same way, unfortunately we currently don’t have a better defense

      • NihilsineNefas@slrpnk.netEnglish
        1·
        11 hours ago

        If we’re lucky and there’s a distinct shift in the way the system works we might end up with stronger rights to privacy (or maybe there will be a case built against meta itself for their privacy violations)

        For now I assume the only real privacy option is one of those medusa style ‘bricking devices that photograph everything with a creative QR code’ images built into clothing, or some kind of portable Bluetooth jammers to stop it from being able to talk to the host device

        • infeeeee@lemmy.zipEnglish
          2·
          10 hours ago

          So you recommend non existent solutions to an existing problem… Or what qr code are you writing about?

          Bluetooth jammers exist, but they can’t stop cameras recording in a glasses. Bluetooth by itself is not the problem with the glasses, it’s just a symptom, I guess they have some internal memory, so if you jam the connection between the glass and the phone you just delay the recording, don’t stop it.

          And you also jam others trying to detect the glasses, so you may be actually helping the bad actor.

          • NihilsineNefas@slrpnk.netEnglish
            1·
            10 hours ago

            At the minute we’ve only really got the scarf that’s covered in QR codes so big grain of salt on the concept of a medusa QR I was on about, for sure.

            In terms of real alternatives, blasting out the sensors with lasers seems like the only option, with the mild risk of blinding a tech bro so no real loss there/j

            My only actual issue with the program (Other than the innate lack of privacy from having your phone constantly scanning for Bluetooth signals) is that once you know one of these glassholes is in your vicinity, it doesn’t actually do anything to stop them from recording.