Former Product Manager at Facebook Frances Haugen, who put allegations on Facebook that it misused the users’ information, has criticized Meta’s Metaverse.
She made thousands of confidential documents with sensitive information public last year. This content deceives readers because it includes references to human trafficking, dangerous nationalist groups, and falsehoods about the Covid-19 vaccination, among other things.
While speaking in an interview, she stated that Meta (rebranded from Facebook) has made “very grandiose promises” regarding their metaverse users’ safety, but “if they don’t commit to transparency and access and other accountability measures, I can imagine just seeing a repeat of all the harms you currently see on Facebook.”
To create an adorable virtual experience, the company will install adequate hardware components such as sensors, microphones, and cameras at homes to gather essential data to create a replica of the real world. This means that very crucial information about consumers will be on Meta’s hand.
Owing to this, Haugen has raised her concern over data privacy and consumer protection. She stated that the company’s priority is to build the most detailed picture of its users as much as possible to bombard advertising.
She added, “You don’t really have a choice now on whether or not you want Facebook spying on you at home. We just have to trust the company to do the right thing.”
To know their customers, big companies such as Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft have already deployed “personal assistants” for their personal benefits. Now, with the boom in virtual reality, Metaverse will advance this data mining to take it to the next level.
She mentioned that The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights group, also warned governments that the real-time collection of a large amount of data could make it difficult for them to keep an eye on these platforms.
