5 ms·

Study outlines privacy risks in metaverse virtual worlds

36 points by samizdis 4y ago

Gentil 4y ago
Anything related to FB, Google, Apple and Microsoft is a privacy risk. Why do people need studies for this? Their practices were never good or is getting any better.
- tyleo 4y ago
  I disagree. Only 2 of these companies are primarily driven by ad based revenue. One of the others has implemented features in their flagship device to limit tracking. Perhaps none would get gold stars but two of these companies are definitely worse than the others.
AlphaWeaver 4y ago
Fingerprinting via gesture and gait tracking is an interesting (and terrifying) (mis)use of tracking data within a virtual playspace. I bet Meta et al. have a research team working on whether gait information from within VR can be used to correlate a virtual identity with a physical presence using data from cameras in, say, physical stores like a Walmart or Amazon's Whole Foods. Very scary.
imiric 4y ago
Well, umm... Duh. There's no study needed to prove that if you give more biometric data to an adtech company, it will be used to profile you and microtarget you with ads even better. XR headsets will market eye tracking as a way to improve immersion, while advertisers are salivating to get access to that data. Wait until brain implants like Elon hyped a couple of years ago become the norm. You'll get ads straight into your eyeballs based on how you actually feel, and not just on your external sensory outputs. Yay, future!
- verisimi 4y ago
  Right. But you do need studies if you are a corporation, in order to guide the issues towards those that don't really matter, so that you can then plausibly say that 'privacy is not an issue' cos of all your actions. Of course, those studies will themselves be a corporate affair, no doubt involving corporate ethics committees to ensure the bar is low, and perhaps they will even create some sort of national board or even legislation to enshrine and the further loss of privacy. The whole charade is just an elaborate public relations exercise, with nothing to do with helping the individual, and everything to do with getting the individual to accept the unacceptable. How much sugar coating do you need for a poison pill?
digitcatphd 4y ago
I don’t really see how any of the threats presented here differ from other technologies we use…
LinuxBender 4y ago
One point I do not see mentioned in the article is that some VR world server applications allow world creators to put in "virtual media" players so that people can watch movies together in the virtual world. This is a nice feature however potentially comes with both privacy and legal risks as the virtual movie player is often pointed at an IP controlled by a player so they get access logs and it is often hosting pirated movies. There is no way to know that player has disabled access logs. Some of the VR social apps also lack security/hardening so a player can host a malicious-on-demand object meaning they can target specific players that can crash players and get access to their files on their PC. In my opinion these applications really need external sandboxing with security/access policies. Maybe something like firejail or bubblewrap but that works on Windows and Mac. If Valve would implement this around all Steam games I think that would be a great start. Somewhat off-topic from this is the ability to monitor a players eyes and record their iris from the VR headset and limiting who has access to this data. I do see this being discussed anywhere. Some government facilities use the iris as one factor of ID. I do not know if this can be abused but either way I would not want random people having a copy of my iris and more than I would want them to have my DNA.

36 points by samizdis 4y ago

Anything related to FB, Google, Apple and Microsoft is a privacy risk. Why do people need studies for this? Their practices were never good or is getting any better.

tyleo 4y ago
I disagree. Only 2 of these companies are primarily driven by ad based revenue. One of the others has implemented features in their flagship device to limit tracking. Perhaps none would get gold stars but two of these companies are definitely worse than the others.

AlphaWeaver 4y ago

Fingerprinting via gesture and gait tracking is an interesting (and terrifying) (mis)use of tracking data within a virtual playspace. I bet Meta et al. have a research team working on whether gait information from within VR can be used to correlate a virtual identity with a physical presence using data from cameras in, say, physical stores like a Walmart or Amazon's Whole Foods. Very scary.

imiric 4y ago

Well, umm... Duh. There's no study needed to prove that if you give more biometric data to an adtech company, it will be used to profile you and microtarget you with ads even better. XR headsets will market eye tracking as a way to improve immersion, while advertisers are salivating to get access to that data. Wait until brain implants like Elon hyped a couple of years ago become the norm. You'll get ads straight into your eyeballs based on how you actually feel, and not just on your external sensory outputs. Yay, future!

verisimi 4y ago
Right. But you do need studies if you are a corporation, in order to guide the issues towards those that don't really matter, so that you can then plausibly say that 'privacy is not an issue' cos of all your actions. Of course, those studies will themselves be a corporate affair, no doubt involving corporate ethics committees to ensure the bar is low, and perhaps they will even create some sort of national board or even legislation to enshrine and the further loss of privacy. The whole charade is just an elaborate public relations exercise, with nothing to do with helping the individual, and everything to do with getting the individual to accept the unacceptable. How much sugar coating do you need for a poison pill?

digitcatphd 4y ago

I don’t really see how any of the threats presented here differ from other technologies we use…

LinuxBender 4y ago

One point I do not see mentioned in the article is that some VR world server applications allow world creators to put in "virtual media" players so that people can watch movies together in the virtual world. This is a nice feature however potentially comes with both privacy and legal risks as the virtual movie player is often pointed at an IP controlled by a player so they get access logs and it is often hosting pirated movies. There is no way to know that player has disabled access logs. Some of the VR social apps also lack security/hardening so a player can host a malicious-on-demand object meaning they can target specific players that can crash players and get access to their files on their PC. In my opinion these applications really need external sandboxing with security/access policies. Maybe something like firejail or bubblewrap but that works on Windows and Mac. If Valve would implement this around all Steam games I think that would be a great start. Somewhat off-topic from this is the ability to monitor a players eyes and record their iris from the VR headset and limiting who has access to this data. I do see this being discussed anywhere. Some government facilities use the iris as one factor of ID. I do not know if this can be abused but either way I would not want random people having a copy of my iris and more than I would want them to have my DNA.