Harvard students demonstrate doxing platform using Meta Ray-Ban glasses and AI
Harvard students demonstrated a system called I-XRAY that combines Meta Ray-Ban glasses with publicly available facial recognition and AI tools to identify strangers and retrieve their personal information including addresses and phone numbers. The researchers say the demonstration shows how smart glasses and generative AI pose privacy risks to the general public.
What happened
Harvard University students AnhPhu Nguyen and Caine Ardayfio built a platform called I-XRAY that links Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses with facial recognition and AI tools to identify people and retrieve their personal information within seconds.
In a video demonstration, the students used I-XRAY to identify classmates and retrieve their addresses, phone numbers, relatives' names, and social security numbers in real-time by photographing them.
Reported impact
The researchers warned that people's personal data, including home addresses, phone numbers, and relatives' names, could be exposed at a glance, and that this information could be used to target financial accounts and gain trust to commit fraud.
Index analysis
The platform leverages five established technologies and links Meta Ray-Ban glasses with tools such as PimEyes, a face image search engine, to rapidly identify strangers from their appearance.
Meta clarified that Ray-Ban Meta glasses do not have built-in facial recognition technology, and that the students used publicly available facial recognition technology and any camera could achieve the same result.
Governance controls
The researchers advised people to protect themselves by removing their images from tools such as PimEyes and ensuring they use two-factor authentication on their accounts.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.