NearLens: A Privacy-Focused Response to the Rise of Smart Glasses

Smart glasses are becoming both more common and more difficult to identify. Meta recently announced that daily usage of its smart glasses has tripled year over year, raising new privacy concerns. Questions have emerged about whether footage captured by smart glasses is encrypted, how it is reviewed and what happens to it once it is uploaded to the cloud. Critics have also noted that bystanders may be recorded without their knowledge or consent.

Brazilian-Canadian product designer Marcos Rezende has sought to address this issue through the development of NearLens. In a recent interview, Rezende explained that the mobile app is designed to alert users when they are near camera-equipped smart glasses that could be actively recording. NearLens runs in the background and detects the low-power Bluetooth advertising beacons emitted by many smart glasses. When a beacon is detected, the app records the event, together with a timestamp and an estimate of proximity.

As regulators continue to grapple with the privacy implications of wearable cameras, Rezende has taken steps to ensure that NearLens does not create additional privacy concerns. The app does not access a device's camera or microphone, nor does it attempt to identify the wearer of the smart glasses.

Early testing has produced promising results. Across multiple public venues, NearLens identified 15 likely smart-glasses devices among 823 nearby Bluetooth devices without generating any false positives. By focusing on the interests of potentially affected bystanders, NearLens offers a privacy-conscious solution that keeps data local and emphasizes transparency.