Cybersecurity Emerges as Major Concern in Senate Hearing on Augmented Reality

Asked by Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., whether it's possible for a hacker using AR to create a digital flock of birds flying through the windshield of an airplane's cockpit, Brian Mullins, who heads AR maker Daqri, said, "We could make virtual objects indistinguishable from the real world." He said AR security is a serious question and industry needs to get out in front of it. Niantic's Hanke said his company, which was spun off of Google, learned to deal with all kinds of threats. Earlier, he said that many individuals had tried to access the company's servers and steal its IP. He said the company often felt alone fending off attacks, which consumed lots of resources. It's a difficult challenge and more help is needed, he added.

To illustrate AR's power, University of Washington School of Law assistant professor Ryan Calo recounted an experience from a colleague who was using an app on a wearable device while jogging. Calo said his colleague threw the device to the ground, breaking it when he thought he saw a spider on it. He later figured out that the app had allowed an exterminator service to send an advertisement in the form of the spider, said Calo. The larger point, Calo said, is that it's incumbent on companies to conduct threat modeling so they can imagine all the possibilities of bad actors exploiting the technology. Entertainment Software Association General Counsel Stanley Pierre-Louis said the industry thinks a lot about protecting content as well as corporate and consumer data. More needs to be done to strengthen cybersecurity laws, he said.

Calo said AR presents "novel concerns" that companies and policymakers must address. He said his research suggests that AR raises questions around free speech, privacy protections and forms of distraction and discrimination: "Will the constant recording of one's environment give hackers, companies and government unparalleled access to the bedroom, the boardroom and private spaces?" He said the technology might be used to discriminate at job interviews and render users vulnerable or unsafe.

Part of the committee's reason for holding the hearing is the popularity of Pokemon Go, which has been downloaded more than 600 million times since July by users in more than 100 countries, according to Hanke's testimony. During the hearing, he said his company was "overwhelmed and shocked" by the game's reception, but he said there were some misconceptions, too, about the game. Many assumed the company vacuumed up and stored vast amounts of data, including personally identifiable information, but Hanke said Niantic collected only a minimal amount of data and also did not sell any such data to third parties.

Hanke said Niantic fully complied with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act to get parental consent for their children to play. Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., and several children's groups had expressed concern over data collection practices and safety of people playing the game (see 1607250009 and 1609010083).

Most witnesses said that they didn't want redundant and unnecessary regulation that might stifle further innovation of the technology. Besides consumer applications, AR is being applied to training, maintenance and manufacturing applications to improve productivity and reduce errors, among other benefits. While several hundred thousands of head-mounted display headsets were sold this year mainly for business, Gartner Research Vice President Brian Blau estimated that hundreds of millions of such headsets will be sold in the market over the next decade.