Android App Detects Nearby Smart Glasses

A new Android app designed to detect nearby smart glasses equipped with cameras has emerged as a grassroots response to rising privacy concerns over wearable surveillance technology. Developed by sociologist and hobbyist coder Yves Jeanrenaud, Nearby Glasses scans for Bluetooth signals from devices made by manufacturers such as Meta, Luxottica Group and Snap, alerting users when such eyewear might be in proximity. The free, open-source tool became available last week on the Google Play Store and GitHub.

Jeanrenaud, who chairs sociology and gender studies at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, created the app after encountering reports of smart glasses being used for unauthorized recording. "I consider it Nearby Glasses to be a tiny part of resistance against surveillance tech," he said in an interview. The app operates by monitoring Bluetooth Low Energy advertising frames, short data packets that devices broadcast to identify themselves. When it detects frames linked to smart glasses producers, it sends a push notification stating, "Smart Glasses are probably nearby," along with the manufacturer's name. Users can adjust the scanning range, which typically extends 10 to 50...