Ar Taboo Instant
| Region | Potential AR Taboo | Neutral/Tolerant View | |--------|--------------------|------------------------| | Japan | AR ghosts in hospitals (Shinto beliefs about spirit pollution) | AR tourist ghosts at historical sites | | Saudi Arabia | AR revealing a woman’s face without her consent | AR used for family genealogy overlays | | Indigenous Australia | AR showing secret/sacred dreamings in public lands | AR educational tools approved by elders | | Western Europe | AR that ranks people by social class or income | AR fashion filters for entertainment |
| Source | Explanation | Example | |--------|-------------|---------| | | AR can capture/display real-world data intrusively | Pointing an AR camera at a stranger and instantly showing their name, salary, or medical info | | Grief & death rituals | Interacting with the dead via AR violates sacred mourning practices | Forcing an AR avatar of a deceased child onto a grieving parent | | Consent & autonomy | Altering someone’s perceived reality without their permission | AR graffiti on a person’s face during a live conversation | | Social hierarchy | AR that disrespects authority or tradition | Overlaying mocking captions on a religious leader during a ceremony | ar taboo
This guide is intended for students, developers, policymakers, and general readers interested in understanding why certain uses of AR provoke discomfort, rejection, or active prohibition. An AR taboo is an unwritten social rule or ethical boundary that discourages or forbids specific uses of Augmented Reality. Unlike legal prohibitions (e.g., spying laws), taboos arise from collective moral intuition, fear of social consequences, or psychological revulsion. | Region | Potential AR Taboo | Neutral/Tolerant
Do not augment others in ways you would not accept being augmented yourself, without their explicit, informed, and revocable consent. Do not augment others in ways you would
Thus, an action that is merely rude in VR (e.g., teabagging a corpse) becomes taboo in AR if done over a real person’s grave. What is taboo in one culture may be acceptable in another. Examples:
| Legal Domain | Covers AR Taboo Examples | |--------------|--------------------------| | Harassment laws | AR stalking, persistent unwanted overlays | | Privacy (GDPR, CCPA) | AR that collects or displays personal data without consent | | Right of publicity | AR using someone’s likeness without permission | | Trespass (digital) | Anchoring virtual objects on private property (test cases pending) | | Emotional distress | Grief exploitation AR (rarely successful but emerging) |


