The Future of VR and Our Data Privacy

Facebook owner, Meta has set up a virtual reality (VR) subscription service in which members can access two VR games per month. This is all part of founder Mark Zuckerberg’s grander plan to create a “metaverse” using AI so that users can essentially live in a virtual world playing games, interacting and working together. 

It is argued that VR potentially poses greater risks to users than other technology as it involves storing personal biometric information which is unique to the user. Mark Zuckerberg’s dream of creating a VR metaverse makes us question how our data privacy could be potentially compromised if VR becomes the new normal. 

What Is Virtual Reality?

Virtual reality is a computer-generated 3D technology that puts you in a virtual world where things that are digitally created seem real. VR is used in different sectors such as Fit XR in the fitness industry or in tourism where you can go on virtual expeditions. The most common form of VR is through gaming when you put on a headset and are transformed into a virtual gaming world.

How Does Virtual Reality Work?

Typically, the user will put on a headset which tracks their eye and general body movement. Your vision is then replaced by computer-generated vision where all you can see is a virtual world. VR headsets typically come with motion sensors, cameras and voice recognition. 

As such, when someone uses VR technology they are allowing the information collected in the headsets to be stored including highly sensitive and personal biometric information such as their eye movement, fingerprints, body movement and reactions, posture, face recognition, voice tone and pupil dilation. This type of sensitive data isn’t really stored in other environments other than perhaps within the healthcare industry. 

Is Our Privacy Protected With VR?

Although VR can be greatly beneficial for learning and entertaining, using VR can be a huge data issue due to the nature of the personal biometric information that is gathered and processed.

Unlike other types of privacy or data breaches that can result in your personal information being stolen or distributed such as addresses, names, passport details or financial information, VR risks go much further than this.

Our biometric data includes things like our fingerprints or facial movements which are unique to only us. This means that when we use facial recognition to open our mobile devices for instance, only we can do that. If our biometric information falls into the wrong hands, this could have devastating consequences. For this reason, VR is a risk to our privacy.

As VR and AI technology grow, it can become easier to recreate virtual footage that seems very real and difficult to distinguish from reality. This is worrying when cybersecurity threats are a major concern. Scammers could use biometric information and create footage that seems real to blackmail people for example. 

It is said that there were 236.1 million ransomware attacks around the world in the first half of 2022. As scammers are becoming more savvy to the advancements in technology, it is concerning that they could access biometric data and then proceed to impersonate individuals, creating fake identities or “deep fakes” and committing crimes like fraud. 

In the worst of cases, hackers could enter the virtual world and influence people’s minds or behaviours by distributing discriminatory or biased information that users believe to be true. Hackers could groom VR users into providing their personal or financial information. 

As such, the more we use VR in our everyday lives, the more at risk we put ourselves. In light of this, authorities around the world should find ways to regulate the use of VR more in order to protect our sensitive information. 

How Can Gerrish Legal Help?

Gerrish Legal is a dynamic digital law firm. We pride ourselves on giving high-quality and expert legal advice to our valued clients. We specialise in many aspects of digital law such as GDPR, data privacy, digital and technology law, commercial law, and intellectual property. 

We give companies the support they need to successfully and confidently run their businesses whilst complying with legal regulations without the burdens of keeping up with ever-changing digital requirements.

We are here to help you, get in contact with us today for more information.