Virtual Worlds, Real People: Human Rights in the Metaverse

Authors:  KATITZA RODRIGUEZKURT OPSAHLRORY MIR, AND DANIEL LEUFER

Like any other technology, XR can have many positive impacts on our daily lives. It can be a useful tool in areas like medicinescience, and education. Artists are using XR creatively to make virtual worlds their canvas and create new forms of expression. Protests and social movements have also used these technologies to raise awareness on collective issues, or to make their voice heard when it is physically impossible or dangerous.

Yet XR also poses substantial risks to human rights. VR headsets and AR glasses, coupled with other wearables, could continue the march towards ever-more-invasive data collection and ubiquitous surveillance. This data harvesting, sometimes done by companies with a history of putting profit before protections, sets the stage for unprecedented invasions into our lives, our homes, and even our thoughts, as data collected by XR devices is used for targeted advertising and to enable new forms of “biometric psychography” to make inferences about our deepest desires and inclinations. Once collected, there is little users can do to mitigate the harms done by leaks of data or data being monetized by third parties.

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