Was talking with @KavyaPearlman yesterday. Her organization, XRSI, has done an amazing privacy framework. Everyone in the AR/VR industry should really spend some quality time with that: https://xrsi.org 

Why is this all important? Thread -->> https://twitter.com/EFF/status/1307735054932533250

It isn't the data collection that really bothers me. After all, I have three Facebook Portals in my home, an iPhone with all privacy turned off, and a Tesla in the garage that can take video of you if you break its windows (always watching, always able to record).

What does?

The ability to control other people. Think about those on the other side of the political aisle from you. Imagine they get more extreme. Imagine they get more informed. Imagine they get more connected. Imagine that a foreign government influences all that.

Sound familiar?

Yes, that's what social media brought us and has that brought us a better government? Better informed people at Thanksgiving dinner?

Now, let's talk about AR/VR control.

We saw 6,000 people chase a Pokemon across Central Park. That was while looking into a tiny phone screen.

Now imagine that everyone is wearing glasses that can, in some way, mess with reality. What if they all get a message that they should look for religious people and start harassing them (or liberals or other groups)?

Think that's not possible? It sure is.

But the range of problems these glasses could bring gets even more extraordinary. They can cure PTSD, researchers told me. Well, if they can cure PTSD they can give you PTSD too.

These glasses could lead to lots of bad paths.

Now that doesn't mean I'm not bullish about doing them. I see huge huge utility that these will bring me and my sons, and @IrenaCronin and I recently wrote a book about all of those.

It's just that the dangers of misuse are higher in this field than in previous ones.

So we need to get everyone educated about those potential dangers, particularly those who are building these systems and who are watchdogs over these companies. Unfortunately when I've gone to Washington DC I saw just how far behind legislators are in understanding technology.

We can see that lack of education when Senators question our tech industry's leaders. They ask the lamest questions and usually are posturing for an electorate that also isn't very up to date.

This means that legislators probably won't put good constraints on industry.

Which leaves it up to us. +We+ need to get up to date. We need to design systems that are human focused and don't lead to massively bad outcomes.

I'm optimistic on that front.

Very very few of the thousands of big and small tech employees I've met in life want to have a dystopian future. I think we can have most of the benefits while making sure we don't do things that could lead to massive societal problems. Yes, that might cost a buck or two more.

How much is it worth to have a better life for our kids? Can we spend some time today and a few bucks more on each device to ensure we don't get an even crazier future than we are experiencing in 2020?

It's up to us.