Plain-English definitions of the smart-glasses and radio-detection terms used across Glasses Radar — BLE, company ID, service UUID, MAC randomization, and more.
Eyewear with built-in electronics — typically a camera, microphones, speakers, and wireless radios — that pairs with a phone or runs standalone. Camera-enabled models such as Ray-Ban Meta and Snap Spectacles are the ones relevant to bystander privacy.
A low-power wireless protocol that devices use to be discoverable and stay connected. Smart glasses continuously broadcast BLE advertisements to reach their paired phone, which is the public signal radio-based detection reads.
A small, public BLE broadcast a device sends out repeatedly so others can find it. It carries identifying fields such as the company ID, manufacturer data, and service UUIDs. Any nearby phone already receives these packets.
A 2-byte code inside a BLE advertisement identifying the device manufacturer. Because it is shared by every product from that maker — earbuds, headsets, and more — matching on the company ID alone is a common source of false positives.
A vendor-defined block of bytes in a BLE advertisement that follows the company ID. Matching the full manufacturer-data byte template — rather than just the company ID — is what lets a detector distinguish camera glasses from other devices by the same maker.
A multi-byte pattern within an advertisement that is specific to a particular class of hardware. Full byte-fingerprint matching is more precise than a 2-byte company ID because the pattern is far less likely to collide with unrelated devices.
A standardized identifier a device advertises to signal a capability or service it offers. Snap Spectacles are reliably identified by a service UUID associated with Snap hardware.
A privacy feature where a device periodically rotates the hardware address it broadcasts so it cannot be tracked over time by that address. Because detection relies on stable advertisement content rather than the rotating address, randomization does not prevent identifying the device type.
"Present" means matching camera-glasses hardware is nearby, based on its BLE broadcast. "Active" (available on Android) means the device is also generating Wi-Fi activity, such as streaming or offloading captures — a materially stronger signal than presence alone.
Transferring captured photos or video from the glasses to the paired phone or the cloud, typically over Wi-Fi. Offloading produces detectable wireless activity; capturing straight to onboard storage with no offload produces almost none.
A small indicator light meant to illuminate when a device is capturing. It is a weak privacy signal: hard to see at distance, and defeated by tape or by removal. Radio-based detection works regardless of the LED.
Performing all computation locally on your phone rather than sending data to a server. Glasses Radar detects on-device: nothing about your location, your scans, or who was near you leaves your phone.
The database of verified device signatures a detector matches against. Detection accuracy is bounded by how complete and accurate this registry is; the only thing Glasses Radar ever downloads is a signed update to it.
Requiring several consistent sightings of a signature before raising an alert, so a single stray packet from a lookalike device cannot trigger a false alarm. It trades a small amount of speed for far fewer false positives.