Hide from Meta's spyglasses with this new Android app

[usonian]

https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/25/meta_smart_glasses_android_app/

Academic urges users not to harass those suspected of snooping with (sp)eyewear

Worried that someone wearing Meta's snooping spyware goggles could be creeping up on you? Android users now have access to an app that can warn them if someone is wearing such smart glasses in their vicinity by using Bluetooth.

Last week, Yves Jeanrenaud, a deputy professor at Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences in Germany, published Nearby Glasses, an Android app that scans Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) advertising data for manufacturer identifiers associated with certain smart glasses, including Ray-Ban Meta AI Glasses.

"This app notifies you when smart glasses are nearby," Jeanrenaud explained in the project's GitHub repo. "It uses company [identifiers] in the Bluetooth data sent out by these [devices]."

snip

"Bluetooth devices broadcast small advertising packets," he wrote. "Even though MAC addresses (identifying a particular device) and service UUIDs (identifying what they are doing) are randomized, manufacturer company IDs in BLE advertising frames are mandatory and immutable."

Over at github:

Why?

• Because I consider smart glasses an intolerable intrusion, consent neglecting, horrible piece of tech that is already used for making various and tons of equally truely disgusting 'content'.
• Some smart glasses feature small LED signifying a recording is going on. But this is easily disabled, whilst manufacturers claim to prevent that and take no responsibility at all (tech tends to do that for decades now).
• Smart glasses have been used for instant facial recognition before, and reportedly will be out of the box. This puts a lot of people in danger.
• I hope this is app is useful for someone.

404 Media and NYT links are paywalled, so I deleted them from this post.

REMEMBER: Democracy Dies Behind Paywalls.