ZuckOff Is a Free App That Sees Meta Glasses Before They See You
The ZuckOff app has gained popularity as a tool for detecting smart glasses, addressing public safety concerns regarding unauthorized filming. While the app can identify the presence of devices, it cannot determine if a user is actively recording.
Why it matters
The popularity of this app underscores the public's lack of trust in the privacy safeguards provided by manufacturers of wearable camera devices.
ZuckOff, a free Bluetooth detection app built by 30-year-old Polish developer Pawel Szydlowski, will tell you whether there is a pair of smart glasses in the room with you. In its launch month, it was reportedly downloaded by over 5,000 people on Apple’s App Store. As of writing, it had been downloaded 1,000 times on the Google Play Store.
Meta’s smart glasses have had a hefty share of scrutiny over the past few months. Unsolicited filming is a growing public safety concern, with venues like schools and cinemas increasingly banning their usage outright.
Szydlowski recorded the Bluetooth signals broadcast by various models of smart glasses, building a digital fingerprint for each of them. He bought the hardware himself to compile the data that flags when a unique identifier matches up with a manufacturer identifier, catching models like Ray-Ban Meta, Oakley Meta and Snap Spectacles in the vicinity.
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