DEF CON bans Meta-style 'pervert glasses'

As usual we advertise the Meta Glasses detecting app:

Glasses Nearby

play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ch.pocketpc…

While useful, I would not want my device to be constantly pinging every device around it with wifi, bluetooth, or whatever other radio signal, on the off chance it might catch someone wearing the most groucho marx looking spyglasses on the planet when my own eyes can do that for me.

If not for the sake of my battery life, then for the same reason why I dont leave my bluetooth or wifi on- less avenues for people nearby to gain easy remote access to my device.

Yeah, I don’t think that’s how you’d use it.

You’d see some weirdo in wayfarers and load up the app to check. Simple.

I don’t even trust the “only give permission to use [camera/mic/bluetooth/location] while the app is active” setting.

I would not enter a public space with my phone lit up like a EM Christmas tree, sonar pinging every receiver in sight.

Let alone giving some rando app the access to every piece of NFC/radio comms on the off chance it can positively identify someone’s spy glasses, because that means if they are, ive just given their spy glasses my phone’s identifiers, and I’m spending more time near them and more time to possibly end up on some shady company’s panopticon server.

It’s like the people suggesting shining a laser into a flock camera, it might destroy a bit of the sensor, but they’ve also put a highly visible beam of light directly from themselves to it.

I don’t think the app does that, it’s scanning for pings, not sending out pings. Listening for signals from Meta glasses… it’s not listening to connect with anything, it’s just passively listening. Also it only uses blue tooth… I don’t know what you’re going on about with radio and internet signals.

So you have to leave bluetooth on, which means your device is broadcasting an active bluetooth signal.

nytimes.com/…/bluetooth-wireless-tracking-privacy…

If any random shop can use any phone’s active bluetooth to track and profile every user that’s i side or nearby, I don’t want to have bluetooth active when in public. Genuinely not worth it just to fi d some glasshole pervert when my own eyes can do the job without giving away any more of my data. That’s what I’m on about.