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On June 17th of this year, I posted a video in which I tested various ways to defeat facial recognition cameras. One method I tested was wearing infrared blocking sunglasses made by a company called Reflecticles. While these glasses worked, they are only available as sunglasses. They only come in one size and in a very limited number of styles, and they are expensive with prices running from $88 to $228.
Three weeks after I posted that video, an online prescription eyeglass company called Zeni Optical released an infrared blocking coating called ID Guard that can be applied to nearly any of the lenses in any of the glasses they sell. I've been wearing these Zinny glasses with ID Guard for a few weeks now and in this video I will share my review of these glasses and the results of real-world facial recognition testing I have done with them.
I am Dr. John Padfield, an engineer turned state representative turned business professor. And this is Business Reform, where we discuss issues at the intersection of business, technology, and society.
I want to thank a generous supporter of this channel who donated $75 through this link to buy me a coffee. He requested that I use his donation to buy these glasses, and that is exactly what I used the money for. I also want to thank several other donors who donated $5 to $25 each who collectively paid for this device I'm going to demonstrate in my next video. Your support really helps me keep making high-quality content, especially product reviews.
Because Zeni Optical is a well-established eyeglass company, they have over 2,000 different frame styles from which to choose. And you can choose frames in nearly any color from nearly any material in nearly any size. Likewise, you can order lenses that are non-prescription, prescription, progressives, bifocals or readers. And you can get them as transition lenses which darken in sunlight or a blue light blocking coating and/or an infrared blocking coating. The glasses I ordered were the silver aviator frames with non-prescription blue light blocking transition lenses with the Zini ID Guard infrared blocking coating. They came to $87.90 before tax and shipping.
The first test I performed was to see if I could unlock my iPhone 16 Pro Max while wearing the glasses. And as you can see, these glasses prevent my phone from recognizing me with Apple's Face ID. But Apple uses a very different technology for Face ID than stores like Walmart, Kroger, Lowe's, and Home Depot use for their facial recognition. As always, links to all my sources can be found in the description.
So, how well do Zinny glasses work against store cameras? This is where it gets difficult to say because there are so many variables. What is the resolution and focal length of their camera? What angle is it looking at you? Is it visible light, infrared, or a combination of both? What database are they using to search for you? For my testing, I used a 1 megapixel trail camera, but I was looking directly at it from about 3 ft away. This is what I looked like with and without the Zinny glasses under normal light. And this is what I looked like under infrared lights on the trail camera. Notice how the lenses that are transparent under normal light appear black under the infrared light.
But the question remains, how much protection do these glasses offer from facial recognition? To answer that question, I used the largest database of faces I could get access to. And I ran a series of searches using the four images I just showed you. When I searched using the photo of me taken with a trail camera without glasses under normal light, the database found 10 online images of me and some of those images were found on multiple websites. So there was a total of 16 hits. When I searched using the photo of me taken with Zinny glasses under normal light, the database found nine online images of me with a total of 15 hits. When I searched the database using the photo of me taken without Zinny glasses under infrared light, the database found five online photos of me with a total of 10 hits. And finally, when I searched using the photo of me taken with the Zini glasses under infrared light, the database only matched that image to one photo of me and a total of one hit.
I like these glasses for their style and comfort. Did the glasses give me complete anonymity? No. But it reduced the number of matches to my face by 90% in the database I was using. I am certain law enforcement has access to better facial recognition databases than I was able to gain access to, but many retail stores are likely using the same database I was using. That means depending on how many images of you are on the internet, these Zinny glasses may prevent you from being identified at all. But there's no guarantee of that.
This is a perfect example of what I was talking about in my last video when I said there are things we can do to turn up our privacy, but there is no magic switch we can flip to have complete privacy. I have already made several videos on ways to turn up your privacy by using cash, burner credit cards, and either removing your own data from people search websites or paying an online service to do that for you. I also have a lot of videos in the works on topics such as protecting your devices and cards while you are away from home, choosing and configuring the right VPN, and part two of my video on Faraday Bags. Be sure to subscribe to this channel and turn on notifications if these topics are of interest to you.
The upcoming video I am most excited about should be out by the end of this week and it is my long-awaited review of the Umidigi BISON X10 Pro privacy phone and the Blackview BV9200 privacy phone. The weakest link with both of these phones is the SIM card and I am currently testing a brand new alternative to SIM cards with both of these phones and I can't wait to share my reviews of these phones and the SIM card alternative with you.
Finally, I have a few speaking engagements coming up over the next few months, including one in Elizabethtown, Kentucky on Saturday, September 20th. Visit brushfiresour.com for more details and to sign up to be notified of future speaking events around the country. I have put a link to zenioptical in the description, and depending on when you watch this video, that link may be an affiliate link. Out of more than 100 videos I have posted to YouTube, this will only be the second time that I will be posting an affiliate link. And I'm only doing so after several weeks of personally testing the product I am recommending.
What other privacy-related products would you like to see tested? I can't wait to read your comments.