The app that alerts you if smart glasses are close by

Niv Bavarsky

If you’re wondering if that guy (you know it’s a guy) at the table across from you might be recording you with his smart glasses, there’s a new app called Nearby Glasses that detects surveillance spectacles, giving you a good reason to pay your tab and leave. The app, which is only available for Android, was created in response to reports that Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses have been used in immigration raids and to harass sex workers, per 404 Media, and as a way to guard against the potentially invasive tech. Here’s how the app works: It searches for Bluetooth signals, like the ones assigned to smart glasses, and sends the user a notification. It won’t give a precise location (it’s Nearby Glasses, not Exact Glasses), but it does find signals within 10 to 32 feet of the user indoors, and 32 to 50 feet outdoors. Only getting more intrusive: The New York Times reported last month that Meta is considering adding facial recognition technology to its glasses. Meanwhile…on Tuesday, Deveillance announced Spectre I, a device it says prevents smart devices and AI recorders from “collecting conversations and turning them into data.”