As Augmented Reality (AR) devices become embedded in everyday environments, their outward-facing cameras introduce continuous privacy risks by capturing sensitive information. While intelligent privacy assistants can mitigate these risks, little is known about how varying levels of autonomy reshape user responsibility and engagement in embodied AR contexts. We developed an AR privacy assistant with three autonomy roles and evaluated them in a within-subjects study (N=30) where participants performed a timed search task in a virtual home while managing privacy concerns. We collected objective performance metrics, subjective workload and trust ratings, and qualitative interview data. The Autonomous assistant significantly improved privacy concern detection accuracy without increasing subjective workload or degrading trust. Rather than eliminating human effort, autonomy redistributed cognitive responsibility, from environmental scanning to supervisory verification, prompting participants to adopt an “auditor” role when system judgments conflicted with their privacy expectations. While autonomy heightened situated perceptual awareness, it did not produce measurable gains in global privacy literacy, suggesting AR privacy assistants must balance transparency and alignment to support human agency.
When capture is unavoidable, mediate exposure — a human-in-the-loop assistant standing at the gate.
Within-subjects, N=30 — a timed search task in a virtual home, privacy concerns managed live.
Manual · Advisor · Autonomous — three grips on who holds the conceal / reveal authority.
Autonomy improves detection at no workload or trust cost — but the burden moves, it doesn’t vanish. The user becomes an auditor.