AR/VR devices create novel issues for user privacy due to the scope, scale, and sensitivity of the information they collect. To mitigate harms, policymakers should reform the current patchwork regulatory landscape for data privacy, which fails to address some risks while over-regulating in response to others.

Balancing User Privacy and Innovation  in Augmented and Virtual Reality

AR/VR technologies have transformative potential in everything from entertainment and communication to workforce development and education. But they also raise unique considerations on issues that policymakers are grappling with in relation to other technologies, such as privacy, safety, security, and equity.

Public Policy for the Metaverse: Key Takeaways from the 2021 AR/VR Policy Conference

AR/VR has the potential to make both digital and non-digital services more inclusive and equitable. To achieve that goal, industry leaders and policymakers should take steps to mitigate potential unintended consequences.

Risks and Challenges for Inclusive and Equitable Immersive Experiences

To maximize the benefits of AR/VR technologies, developers, policymakers, and organizations implementing them should consider a variety of user needs from the outset. Government should lead by example as an early adopter of inclusive AR/VR, and it should and establish standards and best practices for equity and inclusion in immersive experiences across sectors.

Principles and Policies to Unlock the Potential of AR/VR for Equity and Inclusion

Attracting foreign investment is a key component of many countries’ economic development strategies. AR/VR solutions can help the process by providing engaging storytelling tools, helping to visualize potential investments, and reducing the need for in-person meetings and site visits.

Attracting Foreign Direct Investments Through Augmented and Virtual Reality

Through a series of expert talks and panels, this half-day conference organized by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation and the XR Association explored the role of policy in AR/VR innovation and identified priority areas for policymakers to consider as these technologies continue to expand.

The Augmented and Virtual Reality Policy Conference

Multi-user immersive experiences (MUIEs)—three-dimensional, digitally rendered environments where multiple users can interact with other people and virtual objects in real time—present new content-moderation challenges. Policymakers should work with those developing MUIEs to balance user safety, privacy, and free expression.

Content Moderation in Multi-User Immersive Experiences: AR/VR  and the Future of Online Speech

ITIF released a new report and hosted a conversation with experts and industry leaders in AR/VR to discuss what unique privacy risks these technologies raise, how AR/VR providers are mitigating these concerns, and how existing and proposed privacy laws and regulations will impact AR/VR technologies.

How to Balance Privacy and Innovation in Augmented and Virtual Reality

Rob Atkinson and David Moschella joined Dr. Michael R. Nelson of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace for a lively fireside chat about Atkinson and Moschella’s must-read new book, Technology Fears and Scapegoats: 40 Myths about Privacy, Jobs, AI, and Today’s Innovation Economy. 

Debunking Tech Myths About Privacy, Jobs, AI, and Today’s Innovation Economy

Please join ITIF, The Hamilton Project at Brookings, and the National Network for Critical Technology Assessment in a press release and showcase event launching the release of the report, Securing America’s Future: A Framework for Critical Technology Assessment.

Securing Our Future: A Framework for Critical Technology Assessment

An increasingly digitalized global economy requires ever-more digitally skilled workforces for nations to remain productive. Unfortunately, domestic and international assessments of digital skills show the United States is lagging its competitors.

Assessing the State of Digital Skills in the U.S. Economy

Augmented reality (AR) amplifies some of the most pressing privacy concerns for bystanders in the digital world and combines them in new ways. Policymakers should develop safeguards that allow for shifting perceptions of privacy in public space.

How to Address Privacy Questions  Raised by the Expansion of Augmented Reality in Public Spaces

Watch ITIF's panel discussion with industry insiders and thought leaders about how companies can use immersive technologies to market and sell products and the impact of laws and regulations on these opportunities.

How AR/VR Can Revolutionize the Way Businesses Market and Sell Products

ITIF submitted comments with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) recommending changes to the Internet Use Survey to collect more useful data on household Internet use for researchers and policymakers.

Comments to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration on Changes to the Internet Use Survey

In a column for GovTech, Daniel Castro explains how cities around the world are beginning to use "digital twin" technology and encourages them to continue exploring how to use the technology to make their communities smarter, safer and more efficient.

Digital Twin Technology Can Make Smart Cities Even Smarter

Patrick Grady moderates a discussion between Meta's Marisa Jimenez Martín and Fourtold's Nicola Scocchi at the Digital Conference hosted by the College of Europe, 

Fireside Chat: Developing the Virtual Worlds.

Patrick Grady moderates a discussion between Meta's Marisa Jimenez Martín and Fourtold's Nicola Scocchi at the Digital Conference hosted by the College of Europe, Fireside Chat: Developing the Virtual Worlds.

Fireside Chat: Developing the Virtual Worlds

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