What does that future look like? According to Zuckerberg (and to many other enthusiasts out there), the internet will eventually become a metaverse. But, as we discussed right here on The Daily Bundle, this “embodied internet” (as Zuckerberg puts it) has plenty of challenges ranging from technical implementation to governmental buy-in.
A Myriad of Questions
In a recent interview with the Associated Press, Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen said that the metaverse will “rob people of yet more personal information while giving the embattled company another monopoly online.” And while there’s some truth to what Haugen is saying, the reality feels more complex than that.
While Facebook/Meta will undoubtedly be one of the biggest proponents of the metaverse, the reality is that multiple corporations and organizations are already eyeing at the idea of contributing to the development of this alternative digital world. In other words, Meta might be a huge player but it won’t be the only one.
The Seemingly Impossible Goal
Facebook/Meta is promising that it’ll do whatever it takes to “minimize the amount of data that’s used“ in the metaverse. The company also says that it’ll “build technology to enable privacy-protective data uses and give people transparency and control over their data.” That seems like the reasonable thing to say, given how much time Facebook has spent on the hot seat taking accusations about privacy issues.
However, there are some problematic things about it. First of all, if the metaverse is an expansion of our current internet, so it seems fairly impossible to reduce the amount of data needed for the platform to run. The reason is simple: the metaverse promises a highly personalized experience that can only be built on top of troves of information of each and every user. Without that data, companies can only offer generic experiences.
That’s not all. Facebook is pushing for the metaverse to be the hub for virtually everything, from playing games to meeting with friends and going to work. How can they expect to offer all those things without storing user information? After all, any exchange that happens within any given platform is based on data exchange. How can we be certain that the things we do in the metaverse aren’t going to be “anonymously stored” for “platform improvement purposes”?
We Need Further Exploration
If you’ve read this far, you might be wondering why I’m being so adamant about the metaverse. Well, you shouldn’t get me wrong, the metaverse is one of those things that feel like it could radically change everything for the better (just like the internet felt like when it was starting to emerge into the big public back in the 90s). However, I’m trying to be realistic here.
We need to do a lot of work before the metaverse actually becomes a viable option. There are plenty of fronts to worry about but, since we’re already discussing the possibility of the metaverse as the future of the internet, we need to start thinking about them right now. While we could discuss which one of those fronts is the most pressing, I think the modern landscape has shown us that we all need to feel secure and protected against attacks and intromissions.
That’s why I might come across as a harsh metaverse hater (which I’m certainly not!). As unpleasant as it might sound, further exploring the issues that might come with the metaverse is the only way we have to make sure that the metaverse doesn’t end up being a privacy nightmare. That doesn’t necessarily mean that we have to distrust everything about it. But given our collective history with social media, it’d be a good idea to push for the necessary discussions that lay down a clear path forward before we all put on our VR helmets and jump into the future.