Protecting Privacy: A Gateway to Freedom of Opinion and Expression in Virtual Reality

Virtual Reality (VR) technology has the potential to expand human interaction with its immersive nature, transcending physical barriers and fostering meaningful connections worldwide. This ultimately promotes the freedom of opinion and expression and contributes to democracy and pluralism. However, realizing this potential requires addressing significant privacy concerns in VR systems. The high risk of identification and inference of intimate traits and ideas, enabled through the collection of vast amounts of biometric information in VR, can create a chilling effect on users’ participation and self-expression, especially among marginalized communities. Moreover, there is a risk of microtargeting and even brainwashing users through the abuse of such data, infringing on individuals’ ability to freely form opinions. Drawing on international human rights law, which underpins domestic or regional law such as data protection regulations and legislative efforts, this report outlines key obligations and responsibilities for the governments and VR companies to safeguard human rights, especially the rights to privacy and freedom of opinion and expression.