The safety of Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses has been called into question after two Harvard students revealed how easily they can be used to invade your privacy. Their program, called I-XRAY, showed that the smart glasses can pair with facial recognition tech to access people’s personal information on the spot, The Verge reports.

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How? Videos livestreamed through Meta’s glasses onto Instagram are fed through a program that uses AI to identify faces. The system then cross-references the images with public databases, and can be used to pull up personal information — addresses, phone numbers, emails, the whole shabang — and onto the user’s phone… All in a matter of seconds.

The facial recognition search engine used to uncover people’s identities is available to literally anyone. In 2022, The New York Times called the search engine, PimEyes, “alarmingly accurate,” made more concerning by its accessibility. And because Meta’s glasses are made to look just like any other pair of mundane Ray-Bans, people won’t be able to tell when they’re being recorded.

Meta has (unsuccessfully) tried to side-step privacy issues. Even though the company is urging users to respect others' privacy, the rules of wearable tech etiquette are only as effective as people’s willingness to follow them. And even with Meta adding a “privacy light” to signal when the user is recording, it’s practically invisible to the naked eye in broad daylight, says The Verge, making it practically useless. Although users can technically opt out of reverse face search databases, it’s impossible to completely remove your data from the internet.

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