philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

Privacy Is Just No Longer a Thing in Augmented Reality?

Skepticism mounts over Apple’s modest claims on Vision Pro data ...

... Where does that data go, and what could it be used for? The latest wave of interest in augmented reality (AR) makes that a pressing question. But, with trust in technology companies at an all-time low, experts are skeptical tech companies will treat the issue seriously. ...

“I think with virtual reality technologies, because they’re sensing so much of what you do, it necessarily will create troves of data people will want to have access to,” said technology policy lawyer and author Mike Godwin. “Government’s hunger for what you do in cyberspace is already unlimited [...] so, I would expect VR and AR to raise even more questions, though perhaps in the same character of questions as mobile devices already raised.” ...

Apple has stated “privacy is a fundamental human right,” an idea repeated in the company’s Apple Vision Pro Privacy Overview, which it released last month. The white paper detailed efforts to keep user data private through on-device processing and data minimization. Some information the headset collects, such as eye-tracking data, is processed on-device and not shared with Apple or third-party apps. 

Yet there’s caveats, loopholes, and possible end-runs. Apps don’t need to access hand or head-tracking data to function, but they might access that data in certain situations. And while nuanced eye tracking data isn’t shared, the gaze-driven design of VisionOS can’t fully eliminate the problem, as any button a user selects implies where the user is looking. ...

Handing over that data would seem to imply trust—and Godwin finds that difficult to accept. “I think it’s the wrong approach to say we should trust [companies] to do the right thing, because their incentives do not align with consumers.” 

He points out that user data, once collected and stored, is often accessed in ways the user didn’t intend. ...

“Today, even companies that are more trusted in the tech space, are still trusted less because of other companies that have acted badly,” he said. “The only way to rebuild trust is to proactively do things that build trust.”

See the full story here: https://spectrum.ieee.org/apple-vision-pro-privacy