I would presume there's some way to publish/propagate an ARO onto the public grid. That would be the main way you could tag a diner with a review like
<<<Decent soykaf here, but the service is fraggin' awful.>>> -- CuppaSeeker
There's probably a time limit for such things, before they get taken down.
Failing that, any RFID chip should serve up an ARO. It can require an authenticated handshake (or a specific frequency), to make it more exclusive, but pretty much anyone who's not running silent will find it if they put enough effort into looking for it.
All stores and everybody have completely public AROs flashing in your face. However, GOD and demiGODs track your spending history and search history to show you want you want. Hell, there are a ton of icons from everything, since everything is connected to the Matrix. The thing is; it's all filtered out, otherwise you would see millions of datastreams that would obscure your vision. You can tone it back, but most people don't want/need to.
RFID chips come in the millions. If they all showed their AROs, you literally would not be able to see a thing in AR. They follow the same protocol as everything else; they are filtered out of your vision by default. This makes them, for most purposes, invisible. If you are looking for a specific one, you can probably find it, but otherwise they are everywhere.
Here's the quote for filtering.
Occasionally, you might also see a datastream, a transfer of data that looks like a thin beam of flickering, multi-colored light. Datastreams are normally filtered out of your Matrix view because if they weren’t, they’d be the only thing you would see. If you want, you can dial back on the filtering, but the streams pass by so quickly that you can’t tell where they’re coming from or going to without snooping on whatever is sending or receiving them, and that would be illegal (and we’d never do anything illegal in the Matrix, right?).
That specifically mentions datastreams, but that really applies to all icons. Things are grouped into PANs to lower the number of icons floating about; things that are not interesting to you (because Big Brother knows what is interesting to you) are filtered out. Most stuff is filtered out until you specifically look for it, then it all comes to the foreground.
Basically, AROs are all private, unless specifically made public. Even when public, most of them get filtered out so that people can function in AR.
You can choose which of your AROs are seen by which people, so you can keep it private or, if you’re feeling impish, put vulgar AROs on RFID tags and scatter them around town for all to see. Of course, other people can filter out the AROs they don’t want to see, and so can you.
Also, most people keep their important stuff in a protected file on their commlink, so that people can't randomly lift their SIN off of them (or so they think).
Most of what you keep on your commlink are files, this includes music, your SIN (fake or otherwise), licenses (also fake or otherwise), maps, email messages, your contact book, AROs, and so on. These files are visible to
people who can see your commlink in the Matrix, so most people keep all of their files in a protected folder.
Reading the OP's question more closely, here's what Average Joe would see. They would see a PAN icon, with the two smartlinked guns standing out. Dangerous weapons are automatically highlighted in AR and separated from a PAN so that they can be identified. So, basically, better hope that runner has it running silent, or has all his licenses up to date.
Most individuals have multiple electronic devices on them at once, and having icons for each one show up would provide too much visual clutter in the Matrix. Often, what shows up instead is an icon representing an individual’s personal area network. This icon often looks similar to the physical device that serves as master for the network, such as a commlink, but individuals will sometimes choose a design or logo that means something to them (such as sports team logos, Concrete Dreams album covers, or corporate designs). Some devices are not merged into the single PAN icon; if an individual is carrying a wireless-enabled gun—or any other wireless device that might kill you—it will show up separately so that it can be identified rapidly.
