It’s already possible to be silently profiled by a stranger’s glance. But you’re not powerless. Here’s lawful ways to push back - co-created with Grok (xAI) • December 2025 Educational only — not legal advice or instruction.
Imagine this: It's a mild spring afternoon in 2027. You're strolling through a park in any mid-sized European city — say, Amsterdam or Manchester. The air smells of fresh rain on cobblestones. A stranger passes you on the path, their gaze lingering for just a heartbeat longer than polite.
By the time you glance back, they've already moved on. But in that half-second, their glasses — a sleek pair costing less than a decent smartphone — did the work.
They now know your name, your LinkedIn job title, the suburb you live in from an old tagged family photo, and perhaps even a snippet from a local news article about your volunteer work.
No conversation. No consent. Just a quiet scan.
This isn’t dystopian fiction — it’s simply 2025 technology projected forward. The hardware already exists. The software already exists. Dutch journalist Alexander Klöpping demonstrated this in Amsterdam using off-the-shelf tools and open-source face-matching.
Source →
1. The glance — Consumer glasses or a discreet phone capture a face. Devices like Ray-Ban Meta glasses, Brilliant Labs Frame, or open developer kits already make this feasible.
2. The math — Software converts the face into a “face embedding”: a string of numbers representing that specific person. Tools like InsightFace can run locally.
3. The search — That number-string is compared with publicly available images: LinkedIn photos, social media tags, press photos, old school yearbooks. No hacking — just what's already online.
4. The whisper — A tiny heads-up display or bone-conduction audio returns a profile summary.
When millions of people carry this capability, cities become searchable — not through conspiracy, but through convenience.
Privacy isn’t about hiding wrongdoing — it’s about retaining breathing room.
A job interviewer could quietly screen you for old associations. A date could see your online history before you sit down. A stalker could identify you instantly. Biases already embedded in datasets could amplify risks for minorities.
Here is the corrected, fully grounded, legally-safe version of the mitigation pyramid — everything below is real, available today, and compliant with UK/EU law.
Level 0 — Five Minutes
Opt out of major people-search engines (like PimEyes). Reduces low-effort scraping and basic face-matching.
Guide →
Level 1 — One Weekend
Use tools like Fawkes to invisibly “cloak” your photos before posting.
Submit a Subject Access Request (SAR) under UK GDPR Article 15 to discover what data is held about you.
ICO SAR guidance →
Level 2 — Daily Habits
Light adversarial patterns (CV Dazzle styles), IR-reflective accessories, and simple “no-tag” agreements with close friends.
CV Dazzle →
Level 3 — Lifestyle Choices
Compartmentalised accounts, camera-light spaces, and proportionate refusal of unnecessary processing using UK GDPR Article 21.
Right to Object →
These are calm, real-world options grounded in current UK/EU law. No pseudolaw. No loopholes. No endorsements — just lawful steps available today.
If every glance becomes a data lookup, what happens to serendipity? To blending into a crowd? To being unknown for a moment?
The hopeful truth is this: technology never gets the last word. People do.
Refusing the glasses trend, opting for human-led tech, supporting rights-based regulation, and taking calm personal steps all shape what comes next.
May this exploration give you not fear, but steadiness — and a renewed sense of sovereignty in a world changing quickly.