Legal Challenges for Augmented Reality
A recent article on Huffington Post details the range of legal issues involved with Augmented Reality applications, particularly geo-location, real-time data harvesting, and facial recognition. Copyright and advertising may also pose legal difficulties.
The legal challenges discussed in the article are as follows:
- Privacy – AR apps must abide by data protection laws. Users are entitled to a copy of their data and access to delete it as well as data security and transparency. AR collects a lot of personal data including user’s phone storage and GPS location.
- Security – AR apps are susceptible to malware. Developers should address data protection from the start of the app development process.
- Sanctions – if AR companies do not comply with the rules, they will face fines, negative press, and be expected to issue compensation to individuals who have suffered damage due to their data not being kept private.
- Copyright – there are complex copyright issues in the AR industry, so developers require appropriate rights clearances for their apps to protect them from copyright infringement.
- Advertising – there are lots of opportunities for AR advertising; however, any advertisements will have to abide by regulations, such as not misleading customers.