A Berlin-based engineer and artist has developed a new script for system administrators who want to ban Google Glass wearers from their networks, for privacy and other reasons.
New Zealand-born Julian Oliver posted the simple “glasshole.sh” script on his personal blog. Essentially it scans the network every 30 seconds searching for the first eight numbers of a Google Glass MAC address and kicks off any it finds.
His instructions are as follows (via The Register):
“Find and kick Google Glass devices from your local wireless network. Requires ‘beep', 'arp-scan', 'aircrack-ng' and a GNU/Linux host. Put on a BeagleBone black or Raspberry Pi. Plug in a good USB wireless NIC (like the TL-WN722N) and wear it, hide it in your workplace or your exhibition.”
Oliver adds that the script may need to be updated if Google releases new editions of Google Glass with a different first eight digits.
His idiosyncratic approach to the head-mounted display technology was formed in response to ‘creative technologist’ Omer Shapira, who wrote an impassioned plea for users to remove their cyber-glasses at a recent New York University graduate exhibition.
“It was not possible to know whether they were recording, or even streaming what they were recording to a remote service over Wi-Fi,” said Oliver.
Google itself has recognised the potential privacy problems arising from use of its self-styled “smart eyewear”.
The web giant issued a list of Do’s and Don’ts for its Glass Explorer community of beta testers. It urged users to ask permission before taking photos or videos of others, and warned them not to “be creepy or rude (aka a ‘Glasshole’)”.
“If you’re asked to turn your phone off, turn Glass off as well. Breaking the rules or being rude will not get businesses excited about Glass and will ruin it for other Explorers,” Google added.
While the technology is still very much in the development phase, security risk have already been highlighted by researchers.
In March, a spyware app was developed which takes a picture every 10 seconds even when the display is off, without the knowledge of the user, and can connect to the internet to upload those images to a remote server.
Data protection authorities in the EU and six other countries asked Google last year to engage in dialog about the privacy implications of the device.