Google's stated policy for apps on its Google Glass head-mounted hardware is that apps aren't allowed to take photographs when the display is turned off. But it turns out there's nothing actually enforcing this policy. Two California Polytechnic students built an app that converts Glass into a spy camera, taking a photo every 10 seconds without any visible indication to the user, reports Forbes.
The app, built by graduate researchers Mike Lady and Kim Paterson, masquerades as a legitimate piece of note-taking software, albeit with the decidedly illegitimate name of Malnotes. It captures images of whatever the Glass wearer is looking at and uploads them to the Internet. The pair notes that although this violates the Glass terms of service, those terms of service have no actual enforcement in the Glass software.
They aren't sure if they could get the app into Google's curated MyGlass app store. They did manage to get it into the relatively wild Google Play app store, but when their professor tweeted about their work, they decided not to bother trying to submit it to the more restrictive storefront. Google has subsequently removed the app.
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