{"id":33011,"date":"2021-10-22T07:44:07","date_gmt":"2021-10-22T03:44:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/?p=33011"},"modified":"2021-10-22T07:44:07","modified_gmt":"2021-10-22T03:44:07","slug":"can-facebooks-smart-glasses-be-smart-about-security-and-privacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/can-facebooks-smart-glasses-be-smart-about-security-and-privacy\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Facebook\u2019s smart glasses be smart about security and privacy?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Smart glasses like Facebook\u2019s Ray-Ban Stories could be used to record you surreptitiously. If the company adds facial recognition, you could be even more exposed.<\/span><\/h4>\n

\"\"<\/span>Facebook\u2019s Ray-Ban Stories glasses capture photos and video and play audio, but the company has much bigger plans for smart glasses, including AI that can interpret what the wearer is seeing. Pic – canadianinquirer.net<\/span><\/p>\n

Facebook\u2019s smart glasses ambitions are in the news again. The company has launched a worldwide project dubbed\u00a0Ego4D\u00a0to research new uses for smart glasses.<\/span><\/p>\n

In September, Facebook unveiled its\u00a0Ray-Ban Stories glasses, which have two cameras and three microphones built in. The glasses capture audio and video so wearers can record their experiences and interactions.<\/span><\/p>\n

The research project aims to add augmented reality features to smart glasses using artificial intelligence technologies that could provide wearers with a wealth of information, including the ability to get answers to questions like \u201cWhere did I leave my keys?\u201d\u00a0Facebook\u2019s vision\u00a0also includes a future where the glasses can \u201cknow who\u2019s saying what when and who\u2019s paying attention to whom.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Several other technology companies like\u00a0Google,\u00a0Microsoft,\u00a0Snap,\u00a0Vuzix\u00a0and\u00a0Lenovo\u00a0have also been experimenting with versions of augmented or mixed reality glasses. Augmented reality glasses can display useful information within the lenses, providing an electronically enhanced view of the world. For example, smart glasses could draw a line over the road to show you the next turn or let you see a restaurant\u2019s Yelp rating as you look at its sign.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, some of the information that augmented reality glasses give their users\u00a0could include identifying people in the glasses\u2019 field of view\u00a0and displaying personal information about them. It was not too long ago that Google introduced Google Glass, only to face a\u00a0public backlash\u00a0for simply recording people. Compared to being recorded by smartphones in public, being recorded by smart glasses\u00a0feels to people like a greater invasion of privacy.<\/span><\/p>\n

As a researcher who\u00a0studies computer security and privacy, I believe it\u2019s important for technology companies to proceed with caution and consider the security and privacy risks of augmented reality.<\/span><\/p>\n

Smartphones vs. smart glasses<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Even though people are now used to being photographed in public, they also expect the photographer typically to raise their smartphone to compose a photo. Augmented reality glasses fundamentally disrupt or violate this sense of normalcy. The public setting may be the same, but the sheer scale and approach of recording has changed.<\/span><\/p>\n

Such deviations from the norm have long been\u00a0recognized by researchers\u00a0as a violation of privacy. My group\u2019s research has found that people in the neighborhood of nontraditional cameras want a more\u00a0tangible sense of when their privacy is being compromised\u00a0because they find it difficult to know whether they are being recorded.<\/span><\/p>\n

Absent the typical physical gestures of taking a photo, people need better ways to convey whether a camera or microphone is recording people. Facebook has already been\u00a0warned by the European Union\u00a0that the LED indicating a pair of Ray-Ban Stories is recording is too small.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the longer term, however, people might become accustomed to smart glasses as the new normal. Our research found that although young adults worry about others recording their embarrassing moments on smartphones,\u00a0they have adjusted\u00a0to the pervasive presence of cameras.<\/span><\/p>\n

Smart glasses as a memory aid<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

An important application of smart glasses is as a memory aid. If you could record or \u201clifelog\u201d your entire day from a first-person point of view, you could simply rewind or scroll through the video at will. You could examine the video to see where you left your keys, or you could replay a conversion to recall a friend\u2019s movie recommendation.<\/span><\/p>\n

Our research studied volunteers who wore lifelogging cameras for several days. We uncovered several privacy concerns \u2013 this time,\u00a0for the camera wearer. Considering who, or what algorithms, might have access to the camera footage, people may worry about the detailed portrait it paints of them.<\/span><\/p>\n

Who you meet, what you eat, what you watch and what your living room really looks like without guests are all recorded. We found that people were\u00a0especially concerned about the places being recorded, as well as their computer and phone screens, which formed a large fraction of their lifelogging history.<\/span><\/p>\n

Popular media already has its take on what can go horribly wrong with such memory aids. \u201cThe Entire History of You\u201d episode of the TV series \u201cBlack Mirror\u201d shows how even the most casual arguments can lead to people digging through lifelogs for evidence of who said exactly what and when. In such a world, it is difficult to just move on. It\u2019s a lesson in the importance of forgetting.<\/span><\/p>\n

Psychologists have pointed to the\u00a0importance of forgetting\u00a0as a natural human coping mechanism to move past traumatic experiences. Maybe AI algorithms can be put to good use identifying digital memories to delete. For example, our research has devised AI-based algorithms to detect\u00a0sensitive places\u00a0like bathrooms and\u00a0computer and phone screens, which were high on the worry list in our\u00a0lifelogging study. Once detected, footage can be selectively deleted from a person\u2019s digital memories.<\/span><\/p>\n

X-ray specs of the digital self?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

However, smart glasses have the potential to do more than simply record video. It\u2019s important to prepare for the possibility of a world in which smart glasses use facial recognition, analyze people\u2019s expressions, look up and display personal information, and even record and analyze conversations. These applications raise important questions about privacy and security.<\/span><\/p>\n

We studied the use of smart glasses by people with visual impairments. We found that these potential users were worried about the\u00a0inaccuracy of artificial intelligence algorithms\u00a0and their potential to misrepresent other people.<\/span><\/p>\n

Even if accurate, they felt it was improper to infer someone\u2019s weight or age. They also questioned whether it was ethical for such algorithms to guess someone\u2019s gender or race. Researchers have also debated\u00a0whether AI should be used to detect emotions, which can be expressed differently by people from difference cultures.<\/span><\/p>\n

Augmenting Facebook\u2019s view of the future<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

I have\u00a0only scratched\u00a0the surface\u00a0of the privacy and security considerations for augmented reality glasses. As Facebook charges ahead with augmented reality, I believe it\u2019s critical that the company address these concerns.<\/span><\/p>\n

I am heartened by the\u00a0stellar list of privacy and security researchers\u00a0Facebook is collaborating with to make sure its technology is worthy of the public\u2019s trust, especially given the company\u2019s\u00a0recent track record.<\/span><\/p>\n

But I can only hope that Facebook will tread carefully and ensure that their view of the future includes the concerns of these and other privacy and security researchers.<\/span><\/p>\n

This article has been updated to clarify that future Facebook augmented reality glasses will not necessarily be in the Ray-Ban Stories product line and that, while the company\u2019s goals include identifying people, the Ego4D research data was not collected using facial recognition technology.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Apu Kapadia<\/strong><\/span>
\nProfessor of Computer Science,
\nIndiana University<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

* Published in print edition on 22 October 2021<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Smart glasses like Facebook\u2019s Ray-Ban Stories could be used to record you surreptitiously. If the company adds facial recognition, you could be even more exposed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":33012,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8348],"tags":[5998,30352,1193,2494,2490,30353,8350,17521],"class_list":["post-33011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-conversation","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-augmented-reality","tag-facebook","tag-google","tag-microsoft","tag-mixed-reality","tag-privacy","tag-the-conversation"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/C-Can-Facebooks-smart-glasses.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8QzSF-8Ar","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/139"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33011\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}