Zuckoff App Helps Spot AI-Powered Glasses

Smart glasses are getting smarter. Spotting them may be getting harder.

As Meta’s AI-powered glasses become more common, a new privacy question follows: how do you know if someone nearby is wearing camera-enabled glasses? An app called Zuckoff is offering one possible answer.

Built by Polish software developer Pawel Szydlowski, Zuckoff scans for Bluetooth signals associated with supported smart glasses. The idea came from videos showing people being recorded by smart glasses without clearly realising it, according to Szydlowski.

How Zuckoff spots smart glasses

Zuckoff listens for Bluetooth signals broadcast by connected devices. It looks for identifiers associated with products including Ray-Ban Meta, Oakley Meta and Snap Spectacles. When it finds a likely match, the app can alert users that camera-equipped glasses may be nearby.

There is an important catch. Zuckoff cannot tell users exactly where the glasses are. It also cannot confirm whether someone is recording. Instead, the app uses Bluetooth signal strength to provide rough proximity information.

Bluetooth can suggest that a device is nearby, but it cannot reliably identify its direction or activity. The basic scanning feature is free on iPhone. A paid Pro version adds background monitoring, alerts, widgets, longer sighting history and CSV export. Zuckoff says it is independent of Meta, Ray-Ban, Oakley, Luxottica and Snap.

Why camera glasses are raising eyebrows

Meta’s smart glasses combine cameras, speakers and AI features. Users can take photos and videos, make calls and interact with an AI assistant without reaching for a phone. Meta says supported glasses have a white capture LED that flashes when photos or videos are being recorded.

The company also says covering or tampering with the LED disables the camera. The privacy concern is that glasses still look like glasses. In a classroom, office, restaurant or crowded train, someone may not immediately notice a tiny recording indicator.

That makes consent more complicated than it is when someone visibly points a phone camera at you.

There is no perfect detection

Zuckoff does not promise to detect every pair of camera glasses nearby. Its description notes that some devices may be easier to detect while powering on, pairing or leaving their case. Others can become less visible after connecting to a smartphone.

So, no alert does not mean no smart glasses are around. And an alert does not mean someone is recording.

Still, Zuckoff points to an interesting new category of privacy tools. As AI moves from phones into things people wear all day, people are also looking for ways to see what those devices can see.

Smart glasses may be designed to blend in. Apps like Zuckoff are trying to make them a little easier to notice.