Apparently, there are smartphones on the market that come with a kind of x-ray vision. Big disclaimer: Most headlines covering this are wildly alarmist. It’s not nearly as bad as it may sound at first – and definitely not as refined as Superman’s equivalent “superpower”. But still, some smartphone cameras do indeed have an infrared filter that allows one to see through certain plastics. The list of items that become transparent is thankfully – no, not disappointingly – limited to TV or Switch remotes and other similarly thin, black plastics. Some have reported that the filter also creates the ability to look through cola, red wine and other dark fluids.

As many have probably guessed, the worrisome part of this x-ray vision feature is the ability to see through clothing – especially when you think about how many of your clothes are made of synthetic materials. However, while the feature does indeed work on thin black shirts, for example, the infrared filter does not allow smartphone users to point their camera at random people on the street and see what’s under their clothes. And more importantly, the respective companies have announced they would deactivate the feature, just to be on the safe side. For now.