NearLens was built to answer a real privacy problem: anyone nearby might be recording with camera-equipped smart glasses, and bystanders have no way to know. The challenge was to use AI to build a functional product that addresses this gap. The core problem is asymmetry: glasses never announce filming, facial recognition can identify strangers from a single frame, and no detection tool existed for iOS users. Seven smart-glasses owners were interviewed across Waterloo, Atlanta, San Francisco, Indianapolis, Ottawa, and Toronto. Key insights: glasses hide filming by design, none of the seven read the terms in full, detection split reactions 3 positive, 2 against, 2 conditional, and the microphone worried interviewees as much as the camera. The product architecture runs entirely on the user's phone in three steps: listen (passive BLE scan), match (company IDs checked against known list: Meta, Snap, Samsung, Google), and alert (haptic notification, log written locally, no server, nothing transmitted). Field testing across four locations found 15 likely smart-glasses detections among roughly 7,000 people at TD Place Arena Ottawa, 0 detections among 823 Bluetooth devices at Meridian Theatres Ottawa, and single detections at airports. Privacy Intelligence and Ask NearLens use Apple's on-device Foundation Models on iPhone 15 Pro or newer with Apple Intelligence enabled. The app ships with WCAG 2.2 AA accessibility from the first commit: VoiceOver labels, dynamic announcements, reduced-motion support, and haptic feedback. NearLens is free on the App Store with no subscription, no advertising, and no data collected.
