What are the Security and Privacy Risks of VR and AR

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How Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality may affect you

Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) are some popular terms, yet they aren’t new at all. In fact, they’ve been around for a few decades now. In the future, they will probably be used widely, for both recreational and professional purposes. The global market size of VR and AR was valued at around $26.7 billion in 2018 and is expected to reach approximately $814.7 billion by 2025.

Even though today these technologies don’t pose so many security and privacy risks at the moment, in the next few years, as their popularity increases, they could be prone to real threats.

In this article, first, I’ll walk you through a brief history of these technologies and then I’ll look at some potential security and privacy issues for VR and AR. Then, I will give you a few key pieces of advice so you can stay safe.

Virtual Reality Explained

To put it simply, virtual reality devices and programs create artificial environments generated by a computer. They can be experienced by an individual through an interface, most commonly a headset, instead of watching content on a display. The purpose of VR systems is to trick the brain into believing the viewed content is as real as possible.

The origins of VR can be traced back to the late 1950s when filmmaker Morton Heilig designed the Sensorama. This was an arcade-style cabinet, with a 3D display, stereo sound, vibrating seat, scent creator, and even a fan to simulate the blowing wind. But Heilig’s invention was ahead of its time and didn’t prove to be successful in that period.

Throughout the years, many experiments were made in this industry and some quite remarkable VR equipment was produced.

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