Master of Industrial Sciences 2014- 2015

Faculty of Engineering Technology, Campus Group T Leuven

This paper is written by (a) student(s) in the framework of a Masters Thesis

AUGMENTED REALITY DOES NOT VIOLATE YOUR PRIVACY

Dries Holemans, Sam Ghysels
Industrial Sciences Electronics-ICT, focus Internet Computing,
Faculty of Engineering Technology, Campus Group T Leuven
Vesaliusstraat 13, 3000 Leuven, Belgium

Supervisor: Jeroen Buijs

Faculty of Engineering Technology, Campus Group T, Leuven
Vesaliusstraat 13, 3000 Leuven, Belgium
jeroen.buijs@kuleuven.be

ABSTRACT
The purpose of this research is to identify the main problems concerning privacy when using augmented reality
devices. People are very aware that many things can violate their privacy, yet they cant define the exact reasons
for violation. The first phase involves a social blog where posts concerning privacy problems will ask the audience
what they think about the various types of privacy violations. The final phase is to evaluate different types of
solutions for these problems, using the input of the audience. By identifying the problems, we can set goals to
negate them. This will allow for further research on the different solutions to problems concerning privacy with
augmented reality devices.

Keywords
Augmented reality, privacy concerns, Google, data collecting, facial recognition, location tracking, social
networking

INTRODUCTION

The main reason people do not trust the augmented reality

devices is because they cant recognize the main problems
concerning privacy. While obvious features such as taking
pictures are considered threatening to privacy, there are far
more hazardous features augmented reality devices can
have for our privacy, such as facial recognition.
If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not
fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself
but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also
suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor
yourself, you will succumb in every battle. These famous
words from Sun Tzu also apply to fighting the problems
augmented reality has with privacy concerns. We keep this
quote in mind as we are discussing the various problems.
If we do not know what the problem is, we wont find a
solution. If we know the problem, but not think enough
about the solution, another problem will rise. Only by both
knowing the problem and solution, we can say that we are
victorious in the battle for our privacy.
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DISCUSSION

Our paper has been divided into two parts with the above
strategy in mind. We will first discuss the problems that
arise with augmented reality concerning privacy. Later on,
we will use the comments we gathered from our followers
to find solutions to these problems and even how
augmented reality could increase your privacy.

2.1

Privacy threats in augmented reality

There are numerous privacy risks when using augmented

reality some are obvious, others are not. In this section we
will discuss the possible privacy threats that come with
augmented reality based on various examples that we
found from our blog.
2.1.1
Facebook environment sharing
Social networking is a multi-billion business today and of
course the well-known Facebook is without a doubt the
biggest player right now (Doe, 2012). Ever since Facebook
acquired Oculus, the maker of the popular virtual reality
head-mounted display Oculus Rift, they are trying to
boost their presence in the virtual reality market. As
discussed in our blog they are trying to do this by making
an application that enables users to share their virtual
environment with their friends on Facebook. Then they
can use the virtual reality app to visit their friends
environments to experience how the place their friends
visited looks like.
Obviously there are numerous privacy concerns about this
new virtual reality application that Facebook is
developing. First of all theres even more of your identity
being released on the internet. Instead of a single picture
you now share your entire environment and everyone can
clearly see where you were and what you did. Of course
you might say that you choose what you share on
Facebook but it probably wouldnt be the first time that
you get tagged in your friends pictures. Now with virtual

environments the chance of being tagged by your friends

is greatly increased and the publicly available information
about you keeps growing and growing. Last but not least
Facebook has shown in the past that it doesnt really care
about privacy and even shares your data with their partners
to increase their own profit (Munson, 2015).
2.1.2
(Automated) Data collection
A lot of devices nowadays gather data in the background.
A good example of this is when a Facebook user posts a
status, it will show the users location. This happens
automatically, without the user knowing. Now you could
say that location might not be such a problem, but other
data is also being gathered by various applications around
the world, all day long. More private information such as
the mortgage on your house could be made public. A real
issue for privacy when such private data is being thrown
around on the internet.
Another example of data collection can be found in an
interesting application for Google Glass where subtitles
are shown during a conversation in real time (Schievink,
2014). At first sight you might not recognize the privacy
risk here but all the conversation data is send to Googles
servers to do the speech-to-text conversion. Another big
problem for the users privacy since it is possible for
Google to collect all the data that is coming to their
servers.
2.1.3
Advertising
Advertisements are usually something people do not pay
too much attention to when using electronics. However, it
is quite important that in augmented reality devices the
advertising could become a more serious problem. With
all the data being gathered from the device, marketeers
(and therefore, big companies too) could easily ask for this
private data just for personal advertisements. We strongly
believe that this is an assault on the users privacy.
2.1.4
Facial recognition
A study showed that 72% of the people wouldnt wear an
augmented reality device such as Google Glass due to
privacy concerns and the most common concerns were
the ease with which others could record their actions
without their knowledge and the potential for private
actions to become public (Levy, 2015). So it seems like a
camera that is continuously on scares people the most.
However it probably wouldnt be such a big problem
without facial recognition.
Research has shown that it is already possible to to identify
a person in real time using publicly available information
and facial recognition software (Acquisti, 2011). One out
of three persons could be correctly identified and while
this might not sound like a lot this number will
exponentially increase in the future when more processing
power, better facial recognition algorithms and more
public data is available. Theres a good reason why Google
banned facial recognition applications from the Google
Glass app-market (Charles, 2013). Facial recognition is a

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serious privacy threat that cant be ignored while
developing augmented reality devices.

2.2

Solutions and improvements for your

privacy in augmented reality

A privacy risk doesnt automatically mean that your

privacy will be violated. In this section we offer simple
countermeasures for the privacy threats described above
and also other solutions that could even increase your
privacy when using an augmented reality device. Again
this is based upon examples found in our blog.
2.2.1
Hololens
While weve discussed other companies such as Facebook
and Google and their privacy issues, a third major
company is also looking forward to the augmented reality
world. In January 2015, Microsoft unveiled their plans for
the Microsoft HoloLens, a device similar to a combination
of the Google Glasses and the Oculus Rift. The current
intention for the HoloLens is to be able to reproduce 3D
images from the virtual world to your room. While some
people raised some questions about projecting the images
and their privacy, Microsoft made sure only the people
who actually wear the HoloLens are able to see the
projections (Statt, 2015).
2.2.2
Militarized security protocols
Another good reason to not distrust the product is the
origin of augmented reality devices. As with a lot of tools
we use today, augmented reality also comes from military
research. Osterhout Design Group was manufacturing
augmented reality glasses for the military and now wants
them to become publicly available (Takahashi, 2015). The
good news is that this device is already up to date with
military protocols, which also include the security of the
data gathered. After all, the military wouldnt want their
highly confidential data to be leaked all over the place. A
strong trust was detected from the comments we gathered
from our users concerning the privacy this device can
guarantee. Though they also knew that augmented reality
devices might be used for killing purposes at the military,
that is another ethical question not to be further discussed
in the paper.
2.2.3
Augmented Legality
Also to be noted is that there is already a lot of debate on
laws concerning the use of augmented reality devices.
Augmented Legality, as it is called (McNamee, 2014), is a
great step forward towards a future where both the users,
developers and third parties are being protected from harm
by privacy laws. While it is still all under development, it
is reassuring for the people to know that there is indeed a
lot of thought put in for their privacy concerns.
2.2.4
(Automated) Data collection
Future users were also concerned about the data that is
being trafficked all over the internet. People are very
aware that personal data might be gathered by other
companies and generally dont like that. However, we
noticed from the comments our followers made that a lot
of people did not really do anything against this. A lot of

simple methods could already help to prevent a lot of data

leaking. A simple method for instance is to not put any
confidential data onto the internet! Also users have to be
aware of what their friends are tagging them for. You
might think that a friend putting a photo of your new car
online might be innocent, but this could give local thief
gangs an opportunity to get your address easily and the
knowledge theres value over there. Therefore, discussing
these things with your friends and family could already
help you a great deal with your privacy.
2.2.5
Augmented reality shopping
Augmented reality could also help preserve your privacy
in ways not possible before. A good example of this would
be a shopping application used in a crowded mall (Oswald,
2015). While shopping for clothes, people have to undress
in small rooms, which might attract some peeping toms.
Now with augmented reality, these clothes can be
projected onto yourself, which undoes the need for
undressing. This in response gives peeping toms no chance
to take a look. While this is only one example, many other
situations can be conceptualized where augmented reality
helps your privacy in a positive way as a side effect.
2.2.6
Facial recognition
As we discussed before a camera that is continuously
recording and facial recognition are one of the biggest
privacy issues for augmented reality. But also for this
problem multiple solutions exist in an augmented reality
world.
The first one is remarkably low tech and protects you with
infrared light. The frame of your augmented reality device
is studded with infrared LEDs, which continuously beam
out IR light. This infrared light will tamper with the lens
of the camera of other augmented reality devices, making
it like there is light all over the wearers face. Additionally
the glasses could have a special coating that reflects the
light back in the direction of the camera to make it even
harder to identify the person wearing the glasses (de
Looper, 2015). This solution makes it unable for someone
else to identify you and thus preserving your privacy.
The second one is a bit more ingenious. Instead of making
you unrecognizable, you simply avoid all the privacy
threats altogether. This works by showing you all the
possible privacy threats on your augmented reality device
such as Google Glass. For example for cameras it will
show you a safe zone where you can walk without being
recorded (Veenhof, 2014). So it becomes possible to avoid
all the privacy threats and walk around undetected.
So while facial recognition might pose serious privacy
issue when you let it run its course, there are multiple ways
to counter this problem. Thanks to these solutions you will
no longer be able to be identified by an augmented reality
device with a camera and thus the main privacy issue of
augmented reality is eliminated.

CONCLUSION

In this paper we have discussed both the potential

problems of augmented reality and their possible
solutions. Many people distrust augmented reality devices
due to the obvious privacy threats like a constantly
recording camera, automated data collection and facial
recognition. However we have proven that most of these
problems are easily countered by very simple solutions
like infrared LEDs. In addition there are applications that
could even enhance your privacy like a shopping
application so you no longer having to undress in a
crowded mall or showing cameras and privacy threats on
your augmented reality device so you can avoid them.
The main goal of this paper is to increase the awareness of
privacy threats in augmented reality devices and
applications but also to offer easy countermeasures that
not only negate the threat but even possibly increases your
privacy in the real world. We hope to have increased the
trust that people have in augmented reality and to have
shown that using augmented reality devices doesnt
necessarily mean that your privacy, or the privacy of the
people around you, will be violated.
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