Privacy in Virtual and Augmented Reality
Devin Forbush, Christopher Guay, & Maggie Shields
A. Introduction
In this paper, we set out the basics of Augmented and Virtual Reality. First, we discuss how the technology works and how data is collected. Second, we analyze what privacy issues arise, and specifically comment on the gravity of privacy concerns that are not contemplated by current laws given the velocity and volume of data that is collected with this technology. Third, the final section of this paper analyzes how to mitigate these privacy concerns and what regulation of this technology would ideally look like. Through the past decade, the advent of augmented reality (AR), mixed reality (MR), and virtual reality (VR) has ushered in a new era of human-computer interactivity. Although the functions of each reality platform vary, the “umbrella term” XR will be used interchangeably to address concerns covering all areas of these emerging technologies.[1] The gaming community might have initially popularized XR, but now, broad industries and economic sectors seek to impose the new technologies in a variety of contexts: education, healthcare, workplace, and even fitness.[2]
B. Augmented and Virtual Reality Background
Augmented Reality is “an interface that layers digital content on a user’s visual plane.”[3] It works by overlaying certain images and objects within the users’ current environment.[4] AR uses a digital layering which superimposes images and objects into their real world environment.[5] Software developers create AR smartphone applications or products to be worn by users, such as headsets or AR glasses.[6] In contrast, Virtual Reality seeks to immerse users within an “interactive virtual environment.”[7] VR seeks to transport the user into a completely new digital environment, or reality where users can interact with, move within, and behave as if they would within the real world.[8] To enter VR, a user wears a head-mounted device (HMD) which displays a “three-dimensional computer-generated environment.”[9] Within the environment created, the HMD uses a variety of sensors, cameras, and controls to track and provide sights, sounds, and haptic response to a user’s input.[10] Mixed reality offers a combination of virtual reality and augmented reality.[11] In function, mixed reality creates virtual objects superimposed in the real world, and behaves as if they were real objects.[12]
