Over the past decade, augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR)—immersive technologies  that enable users to experience digitally rendered content in both physical and virtual space— have seen continuous growth and maturation, evolving from niche products for special  applications into general-purpose technologies with significant potential to transform the way  consumers shop, businesses manufacture goods, and people socialize with each other. Recently,  there have been multiple initiatives from leading tech companies to launch AR/VR products,  indicating their commitment to the technology and bringing the technology into the mainstream. 

The rebranding of Facebook, one of the biggest tech companies globally, as Meta provides the  highest-profile example of one of the sector’s visions for how AR/VR may significantly shape the  future of the Internet.

As AR/VR technologies enter the mainstream, one priority is addressing user safety: ensuring  AR/VR products and services do not cause injury, harm, or loss to users. Due to the broad impact  AR/VR technologies can have on multiple aspects of a user’s life—the technology can provoke  physical and psychological sensations—user safety covers a wider range of issues beyond  physical threats, including psychological and financial well-being.1  While many of the user safety issues present in AR/VR are similar to its technological  predecessors, such as smartphones and videogames, the level of immersion AR/VR aims to  achieve can increase the magnitude or complexity of these risks. For example, the installation of  spyware in an AR device intended for all-day use and equipped with a front-facing camera could  potentially reveal a more significant amount of sensitive information in comparison with a  compromised smartphone. Or the heightened sensory load of a VR headset can make the  physical effects, such as motion sickness, more acute.