Augmented, virtual, and mixed reality technologies are at the cusp of commercial viability. Though these technologies bring great potential benefits, they also raise new and serious computer security and privacy risks. For example, risks may arise for both AR/VR/MR input (due to the need for applications to continuously receive and process sensor data, posing privacy risks to users and bystanders) and for AR/VR/MR output (in which application may, for instance, overlay distracting content on a user’s view of the real world). How should we design AR/VR/MR systems to mitigate these risks, enabling exciting future use cases while protecting the security, privacy, and safety of end users? I will discuss our lab’s past 10 years on research on this topic, and present challenges for the next 10 years.

Franziska (Franzi) Roesner is an Associate Professor in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington, where she co-directs the Security and Privacy Research Lab. Her research focuses broadly on computer security and privacy for end users of existing and emerging technologies. Her work has studied topics including online tracking and advertising, security and privacy for sensitive user groups, security and privacy in emerging augmented reality (AR) and IoT platforms, and online mis/disinformation. She is the recipient of a Google Research Scholar Award, a Consumer Reports Digital Lab Fellowship, an MIT Technology Review “Innovators Under 35” Award, an Emerging Leader Alumni Award from the University of Texas at Austin, and an NSF CAREER Award. She serves on the USENIX Security and USENIX Enigma Steering Committees. For more information on her work related to AR, please see: https://ar-sec.cs.washington.edu.