Mastodawn

Julian Oliver May 14

Meta have been asking some users to confirm their identity with a 'video selfie', & for supposed account recovery. Soon, more users will be asked with threat of blocking or deleting their account as Meta prepares to launch their facial recog glasses (soon on shelves).

But it's not just about feeding their new product. Meta are harvesting biometric data on a vast scale, perhaps globally, & in full cohort with a dangerous regime.

Leaving Meta is an important act of resistance, now more than ever

Julian Oliver May 14

FWIW I have never had a Facebook nor Instagram account, but can only guess how much of a sacrifice it is to leave all those connections behind, especially for heavy users. But the fact these platform giants use our conversations and expressions as an implement of blackmail - threatening to delete it all - shows very clearly they are no better than a shitty landlord. It is an act of care for community and self to stop feeding such toxicity. Stop paying rent.

Worth mentioning that if I can get hold of a pair of Meta's new face recog RayBan glasses I will study them with the aim to detect and hopefully disable them at a distance.

I did the same for Google Glass (covered by Wired, Hackaday, Time) back in the day. I named it Glasshole.sh.

https://julianoliver.com/projects/glasshole/

The working title for my future Meta RayBan blocker is BanRay.sh

glasshole.sh

Julian Oliver May 15

One natural question heard often from Meta users upset by their overreach is "But what are the alternatives?"

Meta have used aggressive & deceptive marketing, dirty politics & lobbying to push a vast unified platform surface into public & private life across the planet. This is how they achieved the 'everybody in one place' people have been trained to expect.

Community infra cannot compete with this,
& that's a good thing. Bc it shouldn't. None should have such singular reach, such power

verified_blobcat

@JulianOliver That's what the alternatives need to sell: independent, scoped communities and identities.

My "vintage audio" friend group doesn't need to know my "gay otaku" friend group. There are appropriate individual fora for each.

The big lacking space is that nobody built a decent family-oriented community space. Meta did it by accident by onboarding everyone, but there's not a friendly story for self-hosting and no non-skeevy commercial play.

Irenes (many)May 16

@JulianOliver damn right. the structure of what the giant platforms are would be oppressive, simply due to the thing they are trying to be and the constraints that come with that

even if they were run by the most amazing, thoughtful, caring people on the planet, these platforms would be bad for society

Julian Oliver May 16

@ireneista 100%

@JulianOliver Unfortunately there really is no drop-in for things like local groups that lots of small creatives make a living selling through. Maybe Nextdoor, but that platform has become the domain of obnoxiously nosy people wanting to gossip about neighborhood drama.

Werawelt May 14

@JulianOliver
Very great! 👍
Would it be possible to find something like #googleglassshole for the #metaglasses ?

Julian Oliver May 14

@werawelt it is my plan to make a blocker, if I can get some of the Meta glasses to study.

Werawelt May 14

@JulianOliver
Phantastic

Luna Lactea May 14

@JulianOliver It would be super cool to be able to automatically synchronize a list of common commercial Wi-Fi networks, like what supermarkets & restaurants have, to have any device running this automatically connect to them for the purpose of kicking off these glasses. I'm not sure what could be done about ones tethered to smartphones for mobile data though.

Julian Oliver May 15

@jackemled What my Glasshole script did/does is send specially crafted deauthentication packets, pretending to be the device the glasses are connected to. This effectively disables most functionality, alongside any streaming from the glasses to a remote or local service. I am curious to see what can be done with the Meta glasses. If they use WiFi, it is positive.

In another project I automated it, detecting the connection and blocking the devices, whenever in presence of device running script

Brother Soul May 15

@JulianOliver @jackemled That's dope has hell Julian. Wow. Big up's!!

Brother

le Pétomane Ancien May 15

@JulianOliver Works at a distance? Then it must be named the RayBanBanRay. Or if IP becomes an issue, the Yar Nab Nab Yar.

@JulianOliver That was you! I actually covered your glasshole project on Hackaday back then when I used to write for them. I recall that post had a ton of engagement and discussion. I remember the project because I found it really interesting and also it had a funny and clever name. When I read about the meta glasses the other day I thought of your project and hoped someone would find a way to do what you are proposing. Glad to hear you are still fighting the good fight.

Julian Oliver May 15

@rickoooooo Hah! Very nice to read you here. And thanks for your support, both then and now!

mirabilos May 15

@JulianOliver wish you could kick them off all networks or actually disable them…

Julian Oliver May 15

@mirabilos in fact that is what my automated Glasshole.sh did, so far as detecting them, the networks they were connected to, and then deauthing them to break that connection. Some old code is on GitHub, in the 'Cyborg Unplug' project, for running on tiny embedded boards. Will resuscitate for this Meta thing. I ceased using GitHub when bought by MS, so no updates in forever.

mirabilos May 15

@JulianOliver no, it just deauths them from one network, but they can just connect to another.

mirabilos May 15

@JulianOliver or even just reconnect.

Julian Oliver May 15

@mirabilos It worked very well with the automated Glasshole, and the two models I tried. It worked well for some other users too, also with quadcopters and WiFi cameras disguised as other things, like smoke detectors. As the detector script in the Unplug code shows, it continuously detects and deauths, so the target device has no functioning connection.

Julian Oliver May 15

@mirabilos https://github.com/CyborgUnplug/CyborgUnplug

GitHub - CyborgUnplug/CyborgUnplug: Cyborg Unplug firmware files

Cyborg Unplug firmware files. Contribute to CyborgUnplug/CyborgUnplug development by creating an account on GitHub.

GitHub

mirabilos May 15

@JulianOliver not to the one WLAN network you run it on, but perhaps to others.

Julian Oliver May 15

@mirabilos In fact it scans all networks on L2, finds the one any member of the target MAC array is associated with, assumes the BSSID of the AP, sends deauth packets to the client (glasses), which it automatically abides as a function of the 802.11 spec built-in. It does this in a loop. With more NICs to put in Monitor mode, you have effective detect and deauth 'threads' in parallel.

mirabilos May 15

@JulianOliver ah. That will help a bit more, indeed.

Dec (into the void)May 15

@JulianOliver
I'd call it FuckCreepyZuck.sh but your title is probably better.

SecondUniverse May 15

@JulianOliver Is it too much to hope for RayBurn.sh, which would make AI glasses spontaneously combust?

Julian Oliver May 15

@SecondUniverse unfortunately yes.

Doreen32128 ready to rumble!May 16

@JulianOliver BanRay I love it!!!

Oooh yes please!!!!

@JulianOliver
That would be a really good app for Bruce.

The FCC registration might have the MAC range in it.. otherwise we're just going to have to scan for it.

It probably should also be disconnected from BT via "l2ping -f".

https://bruce.computer/

Bruce Firmware

Predatory ESP32 Firmware Bruce

Julian Oliver May 16

@ami Yes, easy to scan for if not on a reliable public MAC vendor list yet (though legally should be). The first 4 fields would likely be enough. And yes, BT would be great to tackle, perpetually unpairing would make it quite unusable, perhaps even warranting some terrible reviews if *cough* done at a trade fair or expo.

@JulianOliver
You might need to go for the first 8 or more, depending on the serial.
If the vendor code is unique it would be much easier.

Heh heh heh, a trade fair would be ideal and very amusing.