The Dilemma of Privacy Protection for Developers in the Metaverse
Argianto Rahartomo, Leonel Merino, Mohammad Ghafari, Yoshiki Ohshima
TL;DR
This study confronts the privacy dilemma in the metaverse by examining developer awareness, end-user perspectives, and the supporting technical and legal frameworks. Through a pilot mix of surveys (n=14 developers), end-user interviews (n=11), and analysis of ARCore/ARKit documentation alongside global privacy laws, it reveals a gap between perceived privacy risks and concrete protections tailored to metaverse data. Key findings show that developers lack metaverse-specific strategies to identify and safeguard sensitive data, rely on broad regulatory guidance, and encounter API docs that offer general rather than actionable privacy instructions. The paper argues for a dynamic, integrated privacy framework that aligns legal definitions with technical implementations and for API documentation to clearly indicate when data handling involves sensitive information, thereby enabling auditing and safer XR development.
Abstract
To investigate the level of support and awareness developers possess for dealing with sensitive data in the metaverse, we surveyed developers, consulted legal frameworks, and analyzed API documentation in the metaverse. Our preliminary results suggest that privacy is a major concern, but developer awareness and existing support are limited. Developers lack strategies to identify sensitive data that are exclusive to the metaverse. The API documentation contains guidelines for collecting sensitive information, but it omits instructions for identifying and protecting it. Legal frameworks include definitions that are subject to individual interpretation. These findings highlight the urgent need to build a transparent and common ground for privacy definitions, identify sensitive data, and implement usable protection measures.