Post #1257017

2026-04-17 11:38 UTC

Well, looks like volunteers are now recording calls with blind people on be my eyes and posting them to tick tock. A post on Facebook yesterday caught my eye, and I did share it and express my thoughts. If you are doing this without the consent of the blind person, this is just plain messed up. Also, I did verify that it is against the terms of service to record conversations like that. People are posting these to tiktok, often drawing thousands if not millions of views. I was able to search up the topic, and a bunch of recordings came up. The only bad thing about policing this stuff is, as the poster said on facebook, how the hell are you supposed to link the two accounts together, the volunteer and the person on social media. They can go by different names, so it would be hard to discipline them. It&#39;s awful, and very messed up for the blind person involved. If you&#39;ve had this happen to you, share your stories if you feel comfortable. This sucks, and while I&#39;m not saying don&#39;t use the service, please be careful though. Be careful with what you share, and also, be careful with the things you show on the camera. You never know who could be recording. Just advice for you guys to keep you safe.

Replies (17)

@Dennislong82@tweesecake.social 2026-04-17 19:06

@lexipic@dragonscave.space This is why I use the free service for very limited things. I would never ever never ever use it for any sensative information!!

Open ##1320178
@dhamlinmusic@dragonscave.space 2026-04-17 11:58

@lexipic It's not like they'll do fuck all about it, the same way they do nothing about the ever increasing amounts of scams posted to AppleVis since they took it over. The people I know of who complained about dangerous/illegal posts there were basically told that they did not care.

Open ##1418750
@goyo@gts.poquito.dev 2026-04-17 11:59

@lexipic That just sounds disturbing, and the problem here is that your average Be My Eyes user wouldn't have a clue this is going on. Maybe the team at @bemyeyes can build something in the app that would possibly alert the blind person that this is happening, or force disconnect the volunteer automatically if recording tools in use are detected.

Open ##1418751
@coffee12345@mastodon.social 2026-04-17 12:02

@lexipic Thanks for this. Fuck. Thankfully I've just been Be My AI for the most part. But still that's cracked up.

Open ##1418756
@jstark@tweesecake.social 2026-04-17 14:08

@alexhall @lexipic we should push bemyeyes to put a watermark in the video with the person's account name who is recording it

Open ##1418758
@KanawhaCountyWX@mastodon.social 2026-04-17 16:50

@lexipic Rhat's a serious breech of privacy, you can't fucking do that!

Open ##1418762
@TomGrant91@tweesecake.social 2026-04-17 16:52

@lexipic that must be awful for those blind people that need help dressing! I'm sorry, but that going on tiktok is just out of order! Just imagine it was you needing help to find clothes to go out in or matching clothes for a nice day, you need to get dressed properly, need an agent, and wham! it goes on tiktok. I'm with you Alexis.

Open ##1418764
@patricus@gts.posix.live 2026-04-17 17:06

@lexipic well, sighted always can screw us over which is annoying, but if we try to do the same, suddenly it's a problem.

Open ##1418765
@mabelinr1994@mastodon.stickbear.me 2026-04-17 17:56

@lexipic That's ridiculous. Thankfully I've never experienced something like this. But thank you for the warning. I will now most definitely be careful when making a call with BeMyEyes. This is exactly why I prefer to use Aira for my visual interpreter.

Open ##1418766
@atfarnum@dragonscave.space 2026-04-17 22:13

@lexipic@dragonscave.space Gross. And now I am glad that I have listened to my gut and never used the volunteer function. Something about it always made me uneasy.

Open ##2814620
@Va3ets@mstdn.social 2026-04-18 03:56

@lexipic@dragonscave.space Oh wow. That’s truly messed up if they’re doing that

Open ##2814622
@oasisfan@mastodon.social 2026-04-18 11:27

@lexipic@dragonscave.space @alexhall@mastodon.social That’s so awful. Thanks so much for the warning. So glad I never used Be My Eyes to help me with clothes. Really don’t fancy my efforts to look presentable being put on TikTok by someone and then millions of people laugh at it. Absolutely horrific. I’ve only ever used it for identifying my different bins whether they’re recycling and non-recycling, and other random stuff. Nothing too private. I’ll be extra careful from now on.

Open ##2814624
@Pool@dragonscave.space 2026-04-18 16:53

@lexipic@dragonscave.space initially the app looked interesting, but the unmoderated nature of it bothered me quite a bit. you can't simply drop a platform, connect users and volunteers with it and call it a day. if there was no need of sensitizing the volunteers,then we wouldn't need to call anyone in the first place, we could simply ask for help from people around us.

Open ##2814626
@jason@social.jasonjgw.net 2026-04-18 20:14

@lexipic@dragonscave.space This risk is one of the reasons why I'm more comfortable with AIRA. AIRA agents are being paid for the work, which I prefer from an ethical standpoint; they're subject to background checks and confidentiality agreements, and they have completed training in providing visual information to clients. Sometimes, the end user is not responsible for paying for the subscription, as with AIRA access locations, or the National Disability Insurance Scheme in Australia that I've been told sometimes pays for the service on behalf of individuals, or perhaps some educational institutions and employers. The advantage is that someone is ultimately paying the agents who do the work for their time and expertise.

Open ##2814629
@NightDrake@dragonscave.space 2026-04-19 21:31

@gtbray@allovertheplace.ca I'm sure it's probably happening with Aira as well. But we're just not hearing about it nearly as much. Regardless it's really quite sad, no matter who's doing it and with what app.

Open ##2814631
@GreenSkyOverMe@ohai.social 2026-04-27 12:48

@lexipic@dragonscave.space That's super fucked up 😭

Open ##2814632
@Techgirl1232@techhub.social 2026-06-22 23:36

@lexipic@dragonscave.space That's Fucked up. BME is a good idea and people recording people without their consent just shows that someone just has to ruiin something good

Open ##3524430