Imagine walking down the street, and with a simple command, your surroundings morph. Buildings and the landscape transform, virtual people and objects appear and information about your environment pops up before your eyes. This is the promise of augmented reality (AR), a technology that blends the digital and physical worlds.

Companies like Apple, Meta, Microsoft and Google are racing to bring this vision to reality, investing billions into developing technology that could revolutionise how we interact with the world. AR is projected to replace screen technology in coming decades, becoming as ubiquitous as today’s smartphones, computers and televisions combined.

While the potential of AR is exhilarating, it also raises a large complex set of ethical questions and challenges. As a team of researchers at the University of Glasgow's Centre for the Study of Perceptual Experience, funded by the Royal Society of Edinburgh, we've been investigating the profound implications of this technology, from privacy, data protection, and identity to autonomy and well-being.

Our policy report, published today, identifies the ethical opportunities and risks presented by AR. Our central finding is that the nature, pace, and drivers of technological development mean that we cannot rely on either market forces or natural evolution to maximise opportunities and minimise risks. Active intervention is needed to shape a positive technological trajectory.

A multi-dimensional challenge demands a multi-dimensional response. Our detailed recommendations include lessons for developers, industry, and policymakers.

One concern is protecting individual privacy in an AR-saturated world. AR devices capture vast amounts of personal data, including from passers-by. We recommend strengthening data protection laws so people have information about what data is gathered, straightforward access to their own data, and control over their digital identity.

AR technology opens up new ways for companies to manipulate people by affecting their perception of the world around them. We recommend robust design standards so that developers focus on ways of marking out virtual content from the real, to guard against covert influence.

Education is central to all our recommendations. Learning about the benefits and risks of AR should be integrated into the school curriculum. But it should not stop there. The AR revolution will transform everyday life - activities as mundane as just walking down the street - into a data harvesting exercise for tech companies. We also need a digital literacy campaign for adults to empower everyone to make decisions that can support our privacy, identity, and well-being.

Making this innovative technology work for people will require ingenious design, but it also promises beneficial opportunities. We foresee exciting new ways to work, play, and connect with each other. We need significant further research to realise these opportunities, with universities and industry collaborating closely. But with active, ambitious, ethically guided interventions, we think we can get there.

Professor Ben Colburn and Professor Fiona Macpherson are philosophers at the University of Glasgow.

Agenda is a column for outside contributors. Contact: agenda@theherald.co.uk