Journal of Responsible Technology (May 2021)
Facebook's Project Aria indicates problems for responsible innovation when broadly deploying AR and other pervasive technology in the Commons
Abstract
Nearly every week, a technology company is introducing a new surveillance technology, varying from applying facial recognition to observing and cataloguing behaviours of the public in the Commons and private spaces, to listening and recording what we say, or mapping what we do, where we go, and who we're with—or as much of these facets of our lives as can be accessed. As such, the general public writ-large has had to wrestle with the colonization of publicly funded space, and the outcomes to each of our personal lives as a result of the massive harvesting and storing of our data, and the potential machine learning and processing applied to that data. Facebook, once content to harvest our data through its website, cookies, and apps on mobile phones and computers, has now planned to follow us more deeply into the Commons by developing new mapping technology combined with smart camera equipped Augmented Reality (AR) eyeglasses, that will track, render and record the Commons—and us with it. The resulting data will privately benefit Facebook's continued goal to expand its worldwide reach and growth. In this paper, we examine the ethical implications of Facebook's Project Aria research pilot through the perspectives of Responsible Innovation, comparing both existing understandings of Responsible Research and Innovation and Facebook's own Responsible Innovation Principles; we contextualise Project Aria within the Commons through applying current social multi-dimensional communications theory to understand the extensive socio-technological implications of Project Aria within society and culture; and we address the potentially serious consequences of the Facebook Project Aria experiment, inspiring countless other companies to shift their focus to compete with Project Aria, or beat it to the consumer marketplace.
