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Discussion Sentiment

81% Positive

Analyzed from 3200 words in the discussion.

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#glasses#something#app#better#why#don#zuckoff#sure#recording#need

Discussion (189 Comments)Read Original on HackerNews

flexagoonabout 2 hours ago
Not sure why you'd use this sketchy vibecoded proprietary app over the same thing that's open source and existed for a while

https://github.com/yjeanrenaud/yj_nearbyglasses

mcdonje29 minutes ago
According to the android app store, Nearby Glasses doesn't collect any data, while ZuckOff collects app activity.

Why would I want a bluetooth scanner to phone home? Seems untrustworthy. Nearby Glasses wins from a data safety perspective.

grimgrin3 minutes ago
"even worse", I searched "nearby glasses" on app store, and it's 2nd, under the ad sponsored "ZuckOff"

and so I leave this comment as off topic, but, is it pretty easy to get your new app to appear in that ad slot, above the main contender?

CryptoBanker20 minutes ago
Nearby Glasses is also free on the iOS App Store while ZuckOff contains in-app purchases
cute_boi42 minutes ago
Vibecoders don't even bother to use google. They don't have a clue that there might be already better solution.
RoryH31 minutes ago
LOL, in another generation or less it couold be:

____coders don't even bother to vibe-code, they don't have a clue that there might be a better solution /s

Trasmatta22 minutes ago
I love how even all the copy on the site is clearly AI generated. We're starting to completely lose even our ability to write a single paragraph of descriptive text.
pocksuppet12 minutes ago
Because it works. This is at the top of Hacker News, and Nearby Glasses isn't.
rplnt8 minutes ago
> This is at the top of Hacker News

Twice.

colesantiagoabout 2 hours ago
Unless you're selling to grandparents over 50-70, nobody says yj_nearbyclasses or "Nearby Glasses".

"ZuckOff" is a better quality marketing name for an app like this, vibecoded or not.

The media and already consumers have talked more about "ZuckOff" than "Nearby Glasses" so a winner has already been chosen.

dmantisabout 1 hour ago
It's a better marketing indeed, but that doesn't answers the op's question.

Between something opensource and trusted, and a proprietary potential backdoor that can send the data back to the Zuck himself you'd probably want to choose the former (cause you never know with closed sources).

I'm glad that he has shared the link as for me it's definitely useful. It's not a competition and I don't care what media talk, that's not about money.

colesantiagoabout 1 hour ago
There isn't any hope for something called "yj_nearbyglasses" if nobody outside of technical people know about it so OSS is kind of a moot point here.

Outside of that, this project giving scary warnings is something I cannot recommend to others.

> Between something opensource and trusted and proprietary backdoor that can send the data back to the Zuck himself you'd probably want to choose the former.

Only HN veterans care about this, not people in the real world.

BonerWienerabout 1 hour ago
> so a winner has already been chosen.

Decided by whom?

This feels like astroturfing. The amount of new users recommending and hyping this proprietary product seems odd.

nomilkabout 1 hour ago
^^ this is actually a great lesson in the power of marketing. In this case, something as simple as a product name.
pentaphobeabout 1 hour ago
Forgive me using your comment as a madlib, but one potential ending:

(something as simple as a product name)... is enough to make someone ignore the actual point about software trust and instead argue that good marketing is what's important :)

axus13 minutes ago
Your comment shouldn't be downvoted for misunderstanding the hypothetical; you give a correct answer why "people" would choose ZuckOff. The question was why "you" (an individual from the Hacker News audience) wouldn't use yj_nearbyglasses instead.
gelly321about 1 hour ago
It's not about a winner. This isn't CNN, there's no reason, (if you know better) to use the vibe coded sketchy software like he said. We're better than this. Do you really think popular = automatically better?
pocksuppet11 minutes ago
popular != better but better == popular

If you see something that is popular but you think it is worse, then your better/worse axis is not aligned with the majority.

colesantiagoabout 1 hour ago
> It's not about a winner.

And it is not about being first here. ZuckOff is just a better packaged app, that's why it took off.

> Do you really think popular = automatically better?

If it gets the point effectively across better than the original.

Yes.

It is more supported than something that is OSS that will die in under a year.

There are features that ZuckOff has that are more useful than the suggested one IMO.

For a vibecoded app, it is well packaged with a great name.

That is how you get people to use your app.

XorNotabout 1 hour ago
I mean I'm going to install neither of these because going about my day obsessively focusing on something like this seems weird.
olkalakamabout 1 hour ago
Because I read about it in a place I trust that isn't github, and only care about the perverts, not the code?
phoghedabout 1 hour ago
Where?
user_7832about 2 hours ago
I... don't know how I feel about this. I mean, the concept, sure, good idea. Is it reliable? Perhaps. But... I get a "buy merch" popup the moment I open the page, and there seems to be a pro option for what seems to be a very much LLM-aided app? ...IDK, rubs off a bit wrong IMO. Just my personal opinion.
bwnklabout 2 hours ago
I like the idea of this type of merch that normalizes anti big tech sentiment. But I personally would also opt for something more dramatic, possibly involving a guillotine...on the t shirt I mean
tuzemecabout 2 hours ago
Dunno why I remembered "The Quantum Thief" by Hannu Rajaniemi. Basically, you had fine-grained control over what others perceived of you. Your friends can see you completely, while strangers can only see a blur.

It was an amazing book.

jan_m_savageabout 2 hours ago
Thanks for the book recom.

BTW, I will also recommend 'a hero of our time' by Lermontov. In it, you will get an updated view of what the meaning of 'friends' will be. :)

EDIT: since this is getting upvotes, I will also mention that Lermontov is a descendant of the Learmonts, who were British folk.

Also, the book is small but it's jampacked with a lot of wisdom--street and abstract both-- and presented using a language that shines with poetry, it shines even through translation (Penguin Classics trans. is best).

ColinWrightabout 1 hour ago
I know Hannu, and he tells an interesting story about getting his first book published. I should write it up sometime ... in my Copious Free Time ...

This comment box is too small to contain the story.

* The Quantum Thief

* The Fractal Prince

* The Causal Angel

Actually, most of the story is on his WikiPedia page:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannu_Rajaniemi

shantnutiwariabout 1 hour ago
The 1st 2 were great but I didnt like the 3rd one. Its like the author was in a hurry to finish the book and just started killing characters to make his wordcount.

The 1st 2 are independent, I recommened people stop after 2nd book

TeMPOraLabout 2 hours ago
Makes me think of a Black Mirror episode where similar technology ends up with unlucky/unwanted people becoming inaudible blurs in perception of everyone.

As digital dystopias go, this is one of the worst I've seen; the episode ending with this happening to the protagonist shook me to the core.

treszkaiabout 1 hour ago
uhm, spoiler alert?
Permikabout 1 hour ago
Don't worry, doesn't actually spoil plot of the episode, it's all spelled out for you pretty clearly at the start.
cavoiromabout 2 hours ago
There was a Black Mirror episode called White Christmas with similar concept.
rafram34 minutes ago
> Shows the evidence behind every flag, so you can disagree with it

> Logs every Bluetooth device it hears, glasses or not

How much AGI is required before LLMs stop putting totally irrelevant technical details into marketing copy?

edot31 minutes ago
I feel as though it’s inherent in the models, as part of “alignment” or whatever. I’ve noticed whenever having an LLM help with data analysis, especially Claude, it just can’t help itself from putting caveats and guides and documentation inline or in footers.
soco15 minutes ago
And if you correct it, it will mention "a previous version said..."
Trasmatta11 minutes ago
I also like:

> Nothing leaves your phone and there is no account.

This is good to know, but it's the exact type of thing Claude is obsessed with putting everywhere once you tell it NOT to do something. For example, if I tell it to commit but never push changes to GitHub, it can't help but leave "Changes committed; nothing was pushed." to EVERY SINGLE MESSAGE. The model just can't help but report back about everything it's NOT doing, and it drives me crazy.

ldesabout 3 hours ago
Reading this inspired me that it would be nice if there were a do-not-film-me standard: your mobile phone sends out a do-not-film-me request with a (rotating) hash of your facial biometrics via Bluetooth. All cameras (glasses, phones, etc.) then blur your face in recordings.

Similarly, a venue could request a do-not-film-this-venue setting and make sure no photos are taken at a party.

peri-clabout 2 hours ago
Police unions would love for cameras to standardize on that.

There was an article on HN that one city's police force, when there were protests going on, took to playing Disney songs from loudspeakers; so that any recording of their interactions would be impossible to publish on any significant internet platform (or at least, the audio would be muted, by IP protection filters).

DrScientistabout 2 hours ago
Did the police have the appropriate license to play those disney songs in a public space?
cucumber3732842about 2 hours ago
I bet Disney's lawyers can squeeze a lot more money out of municipalities for playing the music publicly in the first place than they can out of random citizens who are uploading to Youtube.
ameliusabout 2 hours ago
Wouldn't that be covered by fair use?

Nobody who loves Disney songs would listen to them while also hearing police officers shouting, etc.

peri-clabout 2 hours ago
> "Wouldn't that be covered by fair use?"

There's no human to appeal to in social media platforms. It's automated, algorithmic enforcement; and when it's wrong (or someone exploits it to be wrong, like this), you're powerless to do anything. It means nothing if you're technically in the legal right.

simionesabout 2 hours ago
Theoretically, yes, absolutely. Practically, no, they would be taken down by automatic filters and you'd have to be willing to face Disney's lawyers to try to get them reinstated.
UqWBcuFx6NV4rabout 2 hours ago
You’re right. Tech companies will surprise us all and suddenly start obeying the DMCA to the letter instead of just taking the shortcut of “rights holders upload content, it’s fingerprinted, user content that matches fingerprint is taken down”. Then, we’ll link arms and sing kumbaya.
queenkjuulabout 2 hours ago
> Wouldn't that be covered by fair use?

This has never once prevented a DMCA notice from being issued, and I'm sure you can guess how easy it is to get a person at YouTube to review your appeal

the_otherabout 2 hours ago
That’s an admission of guilt by the police, right there. If you have nothing to hide… etc.
UqWBcuFx6NV4rabout 2 hours ago
“We’ve got ‘em now!”. This’ll be police brutality’s great undoing.
nathanaldensrabout 2 hours ago
Wouldn't that constitute a public performance of copyrighted material? The police themselves could be DMCAed. Haha
soapdogabout 2 hours ago
> All cameras (glasses, phones, etc.) then blur your face in recordings.

that requires too much goodwill and effort from the makers of such devices. They know their audience wouldn't want that. They don't give a shit about what people being filmed think.

rpastuszakabout 2 hours ago
Culture/social pressures work better than purely technical solutions
ameliusabout 2 hours ago
Why not make filming opt-in rather than opt-out?
Avicebronabout 2 hours ago
How do you opt out when someone rocks up to the restaurant you are in or the publoc restroom wearing these?
kandrosabout 2 hours ago
there was a black mirror episode on something similar IIRC
eunosabout 2 hours ago
> hash of your facial biometrics via Bluetooth

Sounds like a swift way to be included in "Need constant observation" list. Or we can even build a special surveillance for such folks along with plausible Parallel construction scenario constantly refreshed.

lbreakjaiabout 2 hours ago
Why do we need a standard for something that should socially be the norm?
tifikabout 2 hours ago
Technical and legal norms are implementation of social norms. “obviously everybody knows that you are supposed to do it that way” doesnt hold up well at court, or during an argument about any decision that costs big bucks.
bchabout 2 hours ago
Because some people would still smoke in restaurants and airplanes if left to their own devices.
physicallyIllfrabout 2 hours ago
Wasn't there a "standard" that phones in south kora had to make a shutter noise when you took a picture because they had such a huge problem with men doing up the skirt photos of strangers?

Not sure why you think social norms are positive. Negative amoral behaviors can become norms. I'd argue the west has tons of amoral behavior that is normalized.

Avicebronabout 2 hours ago
Not sure about the noise, but Japan did something likr it with a constant light when the device was recording. I believe it was combatting the same kind of issues though.
mrlonglongabout 2 hours ago
This. Absolutely this.

Explains a lot about why people vote for racist and right wing parties.

bell-cotabout 2 hours ago
Why do we need laws against stealing bikes?

(Yes, example chosen for its reputation for indifferent enforcement.)

kingkongjaffaabout 2 hours ago
These are social problems not technology problems.

We want a society that does not need these workarounds.

ldesabout 2 hours ago
The lines blur between actively taking photos and passively recording for augmented reality, AI assistance, etc. People might not be aware that they record. This standard would also be useful to extend to robots. For example if you visit friends who have a roomba [1].

[1] https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/12/19/1065306/roomba-i...

DrScientistabout 2 hours ago
Indeed.

The tricky part is that social peer pressure requires a lack of anonymity - not just in terms of detecting whether people are recording without consent at the time - but also the posting of content online.

Naming and shaming requires names.

pasc1878about 2 hours ago
Which won't happen as criminals will never want themselves filmed and they are the ones you want to film to make society better and protect yourself.
rawlingabout 2 hours ago
Haven't you got that the wrong way around?

If we have to come up with a technological solution to grant anonymity when people are filming, criminals can use it.

If we as a society don't go around filming everyone all the time, we don't need that technical solution available, so we can film the criminals when they are doing something criminal.

w4yaiabout 2 hours ago
You can't trust humans to follow the rules. They break rules all the time. Look at the HN community.
rpastuszakabout 2 hours ago
Humans adapt and will always break the rules, but that’s not something that can be solved with tech. Think: prohibition vs public anti smoking campaigns/healthcare support/and then increasing prices
airstrikeabout 2 hours ago
We also want a society that is less greedy but that will never happen.
anonreplierabout 2 hours ago
Been around for ages for Android as "Nearby Glasses" app
baggachipz17 minutes ago
Remember when flip phone cameras were forced to add an un-mutable "click" sound when somebody snapped a photo, in order to try to stop creep shots? We've sure come a long way since then.
tantalor9 minutes ago
A comment on the design of this site: I was super confused about what this actually is. How do I use "ZuckOff"? Is it a piece of hardware? A website that I just leave open? Do I download some software, or maybe fork a repo? Where is the fucking download link? Cmd-F for "download" and "install" fail.

I scrolled down. Only the newsletter and contact info at the bottom. Do I have to email them? I scrolled up. Just a list of features and description of what it does, but not how do I use it. What's the first step? Please for the love of God.

I see a big blue button that links to "the shop". Oh, maybe that's where I buy it? No it's just "merch". I'm not sure why some random piece of tech would be offering tote bags for $28 (!) but okay.

I go back to the website and keep hunting. Then I see a row of buttons squeezed in a random location, seemingly out of place, like the designer had a stroke at this point in the process. They don't match the visual style of the rest of the site, so they are easy to just ignore as clutter. One says (in very tiny letters) "download on the app store".

dirkcabout 1 hour ago
> Quiet is not proof that nobody is recording, and a detection is not proof that anyone is

So, you might sometimes know that someone might be recording?

I don't want to dismiss that as useless, but that is a difficult signal to incorporate into behavior.

asarabout 2 hours ago
cool solution to a problem that shouldnt even exist I'd say. how did it become ok to be recorded at all times without prior consent??
hermannj314about 2 hours ago
First they filmed the celebrities, then the politicians, then the cops, then came the ring cameras. It was a slow erosion over decades, the justification drifting from "they are a public figure" to "they are standing near me"

I never knew why the paparazzi could harass celebrities and a few decades later we are all being secretly filmed for a Meta perv database.

probably_wrongabout 2 hours ago
A major factor is that the companies pushing for this technology are spending significant resources into making sure your consent isn't relevant. From this article [1] about Meta and smart glasses:

> Five years ago, Facebook shut down the facial recognition system for tagging people in photos on its social network, saying it wanted to find “the right balance” for a technology that raises privacy and legal concerns. Now it wants to bring facial recognition back.

> (…) The Silicon Valley company has been conferring since early last year about how to release a feature that carries “safety and privacy risks,” according to an internal document viewed by The New York Times. (…) Meta’s internal memo said the political tumult in the United States was good timing for the feature’s release.

> “We will launch during a dynamic political environment where many civil society groups that we would expect to attack us would have their resources focused on other concerns,” according to the document from Meta’s Reality Labs, which works on hardware including smart glasses.

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/technology/meta-facial-re... or https://archive.is/65Fze

ourmandaveabout 2 hours ago
I hope the Microsoft marketing dept is paying attention, because ZuckOff is amazing branding.

Instead of Copilot for Counter Spying, or Anti-Creeper.NET.

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bwnklabout 2 hours ago
> Own a pair? Add them to known devices

Oh, the hypocrisy

niemandhierabout 2 hours ago
Good to know, now I need to find my flipper zero and build a small app to use the information gained.
dmaaabout 2 hours ago
Unlike other commenters, I do not mind the ai-ness of this app. This is a quick solution to a problem that we should not have had in the first place.
ageitgeyabout 2 hours ago
Cool idea, but why not spend 5 minutes to tell Claude to generate something besides the default AI UI style for your app?
nubinetworkabout 2 hours ago
So google can already figure out if you're being followed by an air tag, why can't they natively scan Bluetooth for smart glasses and do what zuckoff does without a third party app?
functionmouseabout 2 hours ago
An airtag is one device that by its nature desperately wants to be seen.
jclardyabout 2 hours ago
...because they also are going to be selling smart glasses and don't want to trash a market they are about to join?
someonebaggyabout 1 hour ago
So they should detect all glasses but their own.
captn3m0about 3 hours ago
Does it beep louder as the BT signal strength changes and the camera comes closer?
Aboutplantsabout 2 hours ago
Bring along a small Bluetooth speaker and call out pervs in public!
ameliusabout 2 hours ago
Wait, doesn't it beep for smartphone cameras too?
ebtebtabout 2 hours ago
What is the difference betwen this and https://www.noglasshole.com/ ?
itqwertzabout 3 hours ago
Great name
simonebrunozziabout 3 hours ago
Yes, the name is absolutely a genius move.

I would bet my money that there's a dozen lawyers at work, right now, in Meta's HQ, to get a sense of what options they have to harass, shut down, or do something else to the creator of this app. And I would also bet that Zuck is furious about it.

etskinnerabout 2 hours ago
At least one lawyer looking at it? Sure, maybe. But this is probably not even registering on Zuck's radar
simonebrunozziabout 2 hours ago
I can't claim to know more than you; but I think I know enough about corporate america and Meta and Zuck that the idea of multiple lawyers, instead of just one, is at least plausible.
throwaway85825about 2 hours ago
He's extremely petty and fhin skinned. Remember the seat booster?
alex1138about 2 hours ago
You'd be surprised. They banned Christopher Wylie from Facebook. People routinely report their entire team (building some product for Facebook) getting their accounts banned

Zuckerberg takes things personally. It's his entire history

Bluesteinabout 2 hours ago
Somewhere deep in the central European woods, a lonely dev fights for his life, against a dead man switch. Accidentally, a NATO drone flattened his house into glass a week ago. Now, he evades drones, rabid lawyers, train accidents, Starlink honey traps, sudden internet blackouts of unknown origin, regular honey traps, poisoned whiskey, social media bans and dowvotes ...

... if you can find him, you can hire him, and restore privacy and sanity to your apps. he is ... the ZuckOff dev.-

pferdeabout 2 hours ago
I'm guessing it's not even aware of it. The billionaires all live in their own reality.
h1fraabout 2 hours ago
I was going to say: can't wait for EU to regulate this, but they already did!
marcosscrivenabout 2 hours ago
As much as I despise Meta and concerned about privacy, I’ve not found anything better for recording snippets of my glider flights than the Meta glasses.

I don’t post them anywhere (except occasionally to friends or family in direct messages).

I fly club gliders and can’t really attach a camera easily. And in any case the PoV is a useful learning tool. I can check I was doing lookout properly, I can see the instruments clearly and so forth.

I have a second pair of normal glasses that I always swap to when I’m back on the ground.

PUSH_AX36 minutes ago
The principal is a very cool bit of technology. There are authoritative blindness and eyesight medical institutions that are claiming this technology is great for people suffering from eye issues.

The shouting match is being loudly won by people decrying the technology however, people can receive physical and verbal abuse on the streets for wearing them which is pretty scary.

Eisenstein9 minutes ago
The people who need them for sight issues can paint them bright green or something.
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puelocesarabout 1 hour ago
I wonder the battery impact of discovering BT all the time..
throwaway85825about 2 hours ago
A better solution would be a miniaturized quadrf style device that could see radio sources and overlay them.
voidUpdateabout 3 hours ago
*knows when a pair of camera glasses are in the room
KellyCriterionabout 3 hours ago
It says:

> Flags camera glasses by their manufacturer signature <

How is this guaranteed to be not spoofed?

wongarsuabout 2 hours ago
Anyone can get a $5 bluetooth-capable ESP32 and set its bluetooth mac to one in the range used by smart glasses. Not sure why you'd do that though.

The other direction is trickier. You'd have to modify the firmware of the smart glasses to set a different mac, or at least gain arbitrary code execution with hardware access. That's well beyond what the average smart glass user will do

And at that point, it'd be mostly about the heads-up display anyways. Somebody who is determined to record you without your knowledge has far easier paths available to them. Just get one of those lighters or ear-rings or car key fobs with built-in camera

dubcanadaabout 3 hours ago
Where does it say that is guaranteed? Nobody can guarantee that.
bdavbdavabout 3 hours ago
This is fantastic.
jan_m_savageabout 2 hours ago
love this. We need more anti-privacy gizmos like this!
ChrisRRabout 1 hour ago
Surely this is anti-anti-privacy?
jan_m_savage23 minutes ago
Oh yes my bad. That's what I had meant but I was distracted and didn't notice. Thanks.
varispeedabout 2 hours ago
I think this will go like this: - Resistance. People don't like being "secretly" filmed. - Most people will realise it does not affect their lives. - People will ignore it - New generation will accept as something normal to do. Everyone recording everyone.
LightBug1about 2 hours ago
v2.0 ... auto-project two middle fingers at the recording camera, in place of the recorded subjects face.
mrlonglongabout 2 hours ago
Upvoted for the best lulz of the day.
markvdbabout 2 hours ago
Good. Now what about fscking smartphones? There's 1000 times more of those, most with dual cameras and microphones.

I have "Hey Siri!" enthousiasts visiting soon. They can leave their iPhones in a nice Faraday cage at the entrance.

kdjdkcneixjabout 1 hour ago
> I have "Hey Siri!" enthousiasts visiting soon. They can leave their iPhones in a nice Faraday cage at the entrance.

He says, deeply immersed in big tech without even realising it.

IAmBroom42 minutes ago
Loved your scenes in "Call Saul".
flanked-everglabout 2 hours ago
You can only fight the future for so long.
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VeejayRampayabout 2 hours ago
we really need to regulate fast on those pervert glasses
gitowiecabout 2 hours ago
pl_PL ( 。 ♡ ‿ ♡ 。 )
craniumjelloabout 2 hours ago
Need permanent paint spray at protests for just hoodlums. Blast them red commie paints.
brapabout 2 hours ago
Sorry to be that guy but:

>Quiet is not proof that nobody is recording, and a detection is not proof that anyone is

Is such claudespeak it’s not even annoying it’s just funny at this point

eqvinoxabout 3 hours ago
Amazing. But it won't work for long, they'll patch the BT beacons with some "privacy" mode :(
tkw01536about 2 hours ago
And even if not - could always make another device with the same company ID and flood everyone with false positives.