Summary

Harvard undergrads AnnPhu Nguyen (https://x.com/AnhPhuNguyen1) and Caine Ardayfio (https://x.com/CaineArdayfio) recently shared a working prototype of I-XRAY - AI glasses that can reveal anyone’s personal details by analyzing faces while walking around in public.

Breakdown

• The technology combines Meta Ray-Ban glasses (https://www.ray-ban.com/usa/ray-ban-meta-smart-glasses) with facial recognition services like PimEyes (https://pimeyes.com/en) and Face Check ID (https://facecheck.id).
• Other services in the technical pipeline include: FastPeopleSearch for home address lookup (https://fastpeoplesearch.com) and Cloaked for partial Social Security Number lookup (https://cloaked.com)
• The AI component of this project involves using a custom LLM to infer relationships between online sources and extract details from the aforementioned services.
• Full details are available in the developer’s published release on Google Docs: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iWCqmaOUKhKjcKSktIwC3NNANoFP7vPsRvcbOIup_BA/preview
• Video of the prototype working in public: https://x.com/AnhPhuNguyen1/status/1840786336992682409
• Note that the developers are not releasing the source code for this project because they believe it is too dangerous.

How to Protect Yourself

In order to prevent technology like this from working on you, refer to this list of Site Removal Services recently compiled by Consumer Reports (https://consumerreports.org):

Background: https://innovation.consumerreports.org/new-report-data-defense-evaluating-people-search-site-removal-services/

Full Report: https://innovation.consumerreports.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Data-Defense_-Evaluating-People-Search-Site-Removal-Services-.pdf

To save you some time, it appears that as of the writing of this article, EasyOptOuts (https://easyoptouts.com) is the best option.

Of particular note in the Full Report is Table 2 on page 11 recreated here:

So, manually contacting and opting out of these huge online data brokers appears to be the most effective way of removing your data online, but is also the most labor intensive by far. If you would like to manually work your way through opting out of all of the major online data brokers, here is the most comprehensive and up-to-date list that I can find:

https://github.com/yaelwrites/Big-Ass-Data-Broker-Opt-Out-List

Of course, you can always hire my company (Tech Targets) to take care of this for you! Contact me at paul@techtargs.com or text 484-452-3127.