Rethinking the Metaverse

Frances Haugen, the whistleblower who made waves in 2021 with her leaks from Facebook, is back in the spotlight, providing her insights on Meta’s ambitious plans for the Metaverse. During her recent interview with Politico, she raised a red flag about how the Metaverse could mirror the myriad issues we’ve seen on Facebook itself—a digital déjà vu, if you will.

Promises vs. Reality

Haugen voiced her skepticism, stating, “They’ve made very grandiose promises about how there’s safety-by-design in the Metaverse.” It sounds great on paper, but without transparency and accountability, we might just be signing up for another rollercoaster of data mishaps and privacy fiascoes.

• She pointed out that the Metaverse could foster environments rife with the very harms we’ve long grown accustomed to.
• “You don’t really have a choice now on whether or not you want Facebook spying on you at home,” she lamented, a sentiment shared by many.

Big Tech: Too Much Power?

It’s not just Haugen who’s harboring doubts. Andy Yen, the CEO of ProtonMail, echoed similar concerns about large tech companies wielding unprecedented power. He quipped that these giants could potentially erase smaller companies from the internet at will, highlighting a troubling imbalance in our digital ecosystem.

“Tech giants could today remove us from the Internet with zero legal or financial repercussions.”

Trusting Meta with control over the Metaverse, given its past, may be a gamble with high stakes and low probability of winning.

The Intrusive Side of VR

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), an advocate for digital liberties, is sounding alarm bells over the anticipated data collection that will accompany virtual and augmented reality. They warn that companies with dubious histories might dive headfirst into profoundly invasive data practices.

• This could lead to a chilling landscape where our private thoughts and preferences are harvested and sold, leaving little room for genuine privacy.
• The EFF stated, “This data harvesting … sets the stage for unprecedented invasions into our lives, our homes, and even our thoughts.”

China’s Data Dilemma: A Sneak Peek into the Future?

The concerns raised about the Metaverse aren’t just conceptual. In China, the societal implications of data collection are not merely speculative but are already being felt. Their favorite app, WeChat, is gathering data on an epic scale, with the Chinese government monitoring almost every interaction its citizens take on the platform.

Learning from Others’ Mistakes

This kind of control is why many experts urge caution when contemplating the freedoms we might lose in a Meta-dominated Metaverse. Just imagine the repercussions if a similar model were to manifest globally.

“Imagine having that power over the Metaverse,” Haugen emphasizes, encapsulating the potential dangers that lie ahead.

As we near an era where our digital lives could be further entangled with surveillance and profit-driven agendas, it seems imperative to rein in these ambitions with shared governance and transparency. Otherwise, we may just be trading one set of chains for another.