New smart glasses technology reveals your personal information when users look at you

CAMBRIDGE – Two Harvard University students have created new technology that gives users access to your personal information just by looking at you.

Students at the prestigious school are known for being ahead of the game and two juniors are living up to that hype. Anhphu Nguyen and Caine Ardayfio created software that can reveal someone’s name, address, phone number and biography from a single image.

The duo has each spent years coding, and coming up with their latest app took just days.  “We use a bunch of public data sources to demonstrate it’s possible to get someone’s personal information from just their face,” said Anhphu Nguyen. 

Scan sends personal image to phone

The pair are using Meta Ray-Bans which have a camera in the lens, to stream live video through Instagram and the program they created. Within a minute and a half, their scan of someone can return personal information about a person right to their phone. 

Every bit of this is legal. There are some restrictions on how governments can use this technology but not people. It’s something that was top of mind for Nguyen and Ardayfio when they were building the code. They are hopeful lawmakers will step in. 

“That’s why we spent a vast majority of the time, not coding, but on privacy regulations and seeing how can we help people protect themselves,” said Ardayfio. 

“Warning shot heard around the world”

WBZ cybersecurity expert Peter Tran said the students had built one of the clearest proof of concepts for this technology.

“It’s literally a proof of concept,” said Tran. “This is a warning shot that is heard around the world. I am both excited and really scared to the point where it will probably keep me up at night from a cybersecurity standpoint.” 

The students have created a “why” for people to take their information off public databases within minutes. But Tran warned that even if your information is privatized on these websites, others could pop up in a matter of time. 

Brandon Truitt

Brandon Truitt joined WBZ-TV in January 2022 after working as a reporter and fill-in anchor at WPRI in Providence, Rhode Island. Before WPRI, Truitt worked at WNCT in Greenville, North Carolina, where he began his career in broadcast journalism.