Julia Schulmeyer

“The metaverse is here, and it’s not only transforming how we see the world but how we participate in it – from the factory floor to the meeting room.” (Satya Nadella) – The metaverse describes a virtual, three-dimensional world in which people interact with each other as avatars. While new opportunities arise for social interaction, the metaverse also brings new privacy risks. State-of-the-art mixed reality devices collect new forms of data (e.g., eye-tracking), which provide providers with comprehensive insights into user preferences and behavior. Because of this relevance, I examine 1) the privacy challenges in the context of the Metaverse, 2) user perceptions, and based on these, 3) derive organizational and technical measures to make the Metaverse more privacy-friendly without limiting its potential.