In the metaverse, how do you manage your data?
The word ‘metaverse’ is trending in the technosphere right now. Ever since Facebook announced its name change to Meta in October 2021, the word has become a major conversation piece for the media, tech companies, and all those curious about technological futures. From Google Search Trends, you can see how popular ‘metaverse’ became this year.
Those in the business of creating said futures have begun discussing their frameworks for what the metaverse will look like and it’s likely that there will be as many metaverses as there are creators. You can find a more in depth comparison and contrast of companies’ visions for the metaverse in Kent Bye’s twitter thread on metaverse frameworks.
The metaverse is already here, or imminent depending on the frameworks. And yet key questions around privacy remain unanswered. For starters, what will privacy look like in the metaverse? In this blog, we identify three key questions for metaverse product owners to consider in the spatial landscape.
What will the privacy defaults be and which privacy controls will be offered?
Metaverse devices (head mounted displays, AR glasses, etc) will expand the types of data that companies collect on users to include even more personal and identifiable information, which highlights the importance of default settings and privacy controls.
Five percent of users have changed their Google privacy settings, which may indicate that people often don’t take the time to adjust their own settings (Aten, 2021). Therefore, defaults will have a large influence on the amount of privacy users have. How will the default settings affect a brand’s reputation and user trust of the product/service?
And for those who want to adjust the default settings, what kind of privacy controls will be offered? Will the settings all be mediated through the metaverse experience, or will they be divided between the device and apps as they are on iOS? Will it be easier for people to have multiple locations where they can adjust it? Or, will having a central place with standardized menus deliver the best user experience?
How will users interact with privacy controls?
How will people make decisions about who to share data with and what kinds of data they are permitting to be collected? Imagine you’re out with a friend who is an influencer and they want to record your hangout to share on their profile later. How might they formally get your consent to record your image and voice?
Or, alternatively, imagine that you have your augmented glasses set with very high privacy settings (meaning you don’t record interactions, share as little data as possible, etc), but you’re with a friend with very low privacy settings in place (records all interactions, shares lots of data). Whose settings take precedent in that interaction?
The point is that privacy controls will not just be in menus, they will likely also be laced into social interactions. And it will be important for users to be able to distinguish desirable sharing situations from undesirable ones and understand how their own privacy settings perform in various social situations.
In 2020, The Extended Mind conducted research with Mozilla on how users will be able to trust link traversal in the immersive web. Typically in the 2D web, we can check the URLs on the browser’s chrome to determine we’re in the right place, but what if we aren’t viewing entire URLs in the metaverse? You can read more on this trusted immersive user interface research here and the various models we tested for immersive browsing.
How will people know what data is being collected and how is it being used?
When highly personal and identifiable information is being collected, it’s important for users to know exactly what kinds of data is collected about them and how it is being used. Many people are often unaware of current data collection practices or their use cases, but one of the obvious ways people see it reflected back to them is through targeted advertisements.
It’s important to consider how targeted ads might affect users in immersive spaces. Will they direct them to their favorite shops? Point out items they might like? When tied to spaces and lived experiences, these advertisements might feel invasive. More research should be done to understand what kinds of personalization and ads people will accept in immersive spaces.
Takeaways
Metaverse developers have the opportunity to consider what features will increase privacy and trust for future users. Given that privacy issues will likely be heightened by increased data streams, will prioritizing the default privacy settings that people most desire help attract the broadest range of people to products and services?
What data collection and privacy features would you like to see offered in the metaverse(s)?
Resources
Aten, J. (2021, January 5). Google Just Revealed How Many People Use Its Privacy Checkup Tool. It’s Not Good News. Inc.Com. https://www.inc.com/jason-aten/google-just-revealed-how-many-people-use-its-privacy-checkup-tool-its-not-good-news.html
