SpaceMediator: Leveraging Authorization Policies to Prevent Spatial and Privacy Attacks in Mobile Augmented Reality

Mobile Augmented Reality (MAR) is a portable, powerful, and suitable technology that integrates digital content , e.g., 3D virtual objects, into the physical world, which not only has been implemented for multiple intents such as shopping, entertainment, gaming, etc., but it is also expected to grow at a tremendous rate in the upcoming years. Unfortunately, the applications that implement MAR, hereby referred to as MAR-Apps, bear security issues, which have been imaged in worldwide incidents such as robberies, which has led authorities to ban MAR-Apps at specific locations. Existing problems with MAR-Apps can be classified into three categories: first, Space Invasion , which implies the intrusive modification through MAR of sensitive spaces, e.g., hospitals, memorials, etc. Second, Space Affectation , which involves the degradation of users’ experience via interaction with undesirable MAR or malicious entities. Finally, MAR-Apps mishandling sensitive data leads to Privacy Leaks . To alleviate these concerns, we present an approach for Policy-Governed MAR-Apps, which allows end-users to fully control under what circumstances, e.g., their presence inside a given sensitive space, digital content may be displayed by MAR-Apps. Through SpaceMediator , a proof-of-concept MAR-App that imitates the well-known and successful MAR-App Pokémon GO, we evaluated our approach through a user study with 40 participants, who recognized and prevented the issues just described with success rates as high as 92.50%. Furthermore, there is an enriched interest in Policy-Governed MAR-Apps as 87.50% of participants agreed with it, and 82.50% would use it to implement content-based restrictions in MAR-Apps. These promising results encourage the adoption of our solution in future MAR-Apps