Two college students are raising major privacy concerns online after releasing their side project being deemed “doxing glasses.”
Harvard students AnhPhu Nguyen and Caine Ardayfio created I-XRAY, a software that can put a name to strangers' faces and subsequently gather their personal information from the internet. Ardayfio and Nguyen told Scripps News they created the project to highlight issues around privacy, particularly in a new technological age.
I-XRAY uses existing technology such as Meta smart glasses, which have a built-in camera; PimEyes, a “face-recognition search engine”; social media and artificial intelligence. The glasses find a face, the search engine finds a name, and their algorithms scrape the databases and social media for information about that person.
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“This idea has been floating around in our heads for quite a few months now,” Nguyen said. “An idea to maybe combine them and see where it goes.”
Their I-XRAY demo went viral, with more than one million views on X.
Ardayfio and Nguyen released the project along with advice on how to assess vulnerabilities with personal information.
"We want this to be as safe for people as possible and to be used as a tool for good and awareness,” Ardayfio said.
Reactions to their project ranged from excitement to fear.
Users on X called the software “Scary but cool,” and “Creepy but cool.”
Another wrote, “Fascinating but Dystopian.”
Some users pointed out the potential benefit of being able to gather a stranger’s personal information.
“As an ADHD person, something like this would be cool to help remember people and things about them so I can be better,” one user wrote. "But holy cow this is terrifying tech and the scope of what's available about people on the Internet will never cease to be concerning.”
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The creators of I-XRAY said the software could be helpful in social settings.
“A lot of people have like, texted me saying they want something like this for like networking or like meeting new people,” Nguyen said.
“Millions of people have seen this technology now from what we have done," Ardayfio added. "And while there might be like a very small minority who do something bad with it, we think that the vast majority of people will be able to now take action to protect themselves."
While new technology can be used for good or bad depending on who the user is, risk and security expert Daniel Young said it’s best for everyone to be aware of its capability to protect themselves.
“The big thing is your information's out there. Your face – unless you are literally living off grid and you have never been on the Internet – your face is already out there,” said Young, founder and Chief Innovation Officer at Circadian Risk Inc.
“And it's not just your face, right?” he continued. “How many people go on Facebook and say, ‘I'm going to Miami, Florida?’ We consistently share our personal lives into the world.”
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Young, who told Scripps News he has been a victim of personal information leaks, said online monitoring is the first step for anyone concerned about their private data being exposed.
“You want to be able to understand how your information is being used,” he said. “There's a lot of different programs out there where you can do this – some of them free, some of them paid.”
While Ardayfio and Nguyen aren’t releasing the code behind I-XRAY, they said they feel their warning about online privacy is working.
“We know dozens of people who we know personally who have gone on these websites and removed themselves, which is nice to hear,” Nguyen said.