New Orleans Attacker Used Meta Smart Glasses To Plan New Year's Day Massacre

The man who drove a pickup truck into a crowd of people in New Orleans on New Year's Day, killing 14, wore Meta's smart glasses to scout out the location prior to the attack, according to the FBI.

These camera-fitted glasses allow users to capture photos and video hands-free, and also allow video streaming. 

Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, identified as a US Army veteran who carried out the deadly attack on Bourbon Street, used the glasses to conduct surveillance while riding his bike around the French Quarter in the months leading up to January 1, according to FBI special agent in charge Lyonel Myrthil.

Jabbar, we're told, made at least two trips to New Orleans to plan what the Feds have called "an act of terrorism." 

For at least two days beginning October 30, 2024, Jabbar stayed at a rental home in New Orleans. During this time, he rode a bicycle through the French Quarter while wearing the Meta glasses, Myrthil told reporters on Sunday. 

Also during the press conference, the FBI released a video taken during Jabbar's October trip with the smart glasses. 

While Jabbar wore the glasses during the January 1 massacre, he did not livestream the attack.

"Jabbar was wearing a pair of Meta glasses when he conducted the attack on Bourbon Street," Myrthil said. "But he did not activate the glasses to live stream his actions that day."

Meta did not immediately respond to The Register's request for comment.

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In September, the tech giant teased a new, augmented-reality version of the glasses dubbed Orion.

"We're not too far off from being able to deliver great looking glasses that let you seamlessly blend the physical and digital worlds so you can feel present with anyone no matter where they are," Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg told investors during the company's most recent earnings call while touting his metaverse dreams. 

But even prior to the wearable tech being used for evil, a pair of Harvard undergraduates warned about serious privacy and physical safety threats posed by the Meta gear. The two demonstrated how the glasses could be used to automatically identify anyone in view of the device's camera and return an AI-generated dossier on them — essentially allowing miscreants to dox anyone in seconds.

"Anyone who can run some simple web automations with ChatGPT can build this," AnhPhu Nguyen told The Register in October. "It's astonishing that you can build this in a few days – even as a very naïve developer." ®