IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 55

Privacy Plan: A particular set of steps, initiated by
an avatar, that enacts changes in the social metaverse such that the avatar has less risk of privacy
intrusion when the plan is enacted. A plan can be
thought of as a sort of program, written over the
allowable metaverse API, that is carried out over a
period of time.
■ Confusion: Creating a confusing effect in nearby
agents can be an essential part of an avatar's privacy plan. Whether or not nearby agents are human or
non-player characters, a confusion tactic is intended
to reduce the fidelity of these agents' knowledge of
the avatar's activity, current or future position, possessions, interests, beliefs, and so on.
Note that in large social metaverses - as in MMORPG's - there is already a level of "cognitive load" introduced by the mere presence of other characters and
such loads can ultimately diminish enjoyment of the
experience [13]. Our work focuses on the more tangible
and aggressive forms of privacy intrusions such as
harassment and observation. The remainder of this section outlines privacy plans we have designed to help
maintain privacy within the metaverse. Note that these
are logical plans, not tied to any particular metaverse
platform or specific app.
■

Plan A - Confusion - Creating a Cloud of Clones
In time, a complex metaverse will provide users with
compelling reasons to want to confuse other avatars in
their observable region. While interacting with other
avatars will remain a principle pleasure (and main raison d'etre) of any social metaverse, it is likely that at
times the sheer annoyance caused by some avatars
(e.g., malicious strangers or bots), the sheer number of
observing avatars, and the possibility of harassment or
stalking (when another avatar simply follows you everywhere, essentially recording your experience) will make
confusionary tactics attractive. One scenario warranting
scrutiny is as follows: You are in a part of a metaverse

It is necessary to ensure privacy
without destroying the benefits
of being in a metaverse.

that resembles a shopping mall in which many virtual
(and real) products can be purchased at a multitude of
storefronts. While each store may record your transactions, you may desire to obscure your movements from
store-to-store from other avatars who you do not know
nor trust. Why? For the same reason that an individual
would not like to be followed shoulder-to-shoulder in a
real mall while buying personal items, groceries, and
books. Shopping habits can be highly predictive of
other personal behaviors. In the metaverse it will be
even easier to be observed by an annoying or malicious
agent. Others can steer their avatars near yours, they
see the view of the world that you do, and by following
along with your avatar, observing and recording your
avatars' interactions with others, store visits, and all
other interactions that are observable, a detailed set of
data about your habits can (in theory) be created. In
another simpler scenario, you may simply be "hanging
out" in the metaverse nearby a home you have created
for yourself consisting of a building, a yard, and a lake.
Here you may simply like to remain free from observation by peers while you stroll between the parts of your
property - a reasonable desire indeed.
We refer to one of our privacy plan classes as the
"cloud of clones" plan. This plan's purpose is to bathe
the environment with confusion in order to obfuscate
user location, activities, beliefs, desires, and/or intentions. In this plan the system creates one or more avatar
"clones" which have the same or similar appearance to
that of the user's avatar. The clones may move about

Table 1. aspects and responsibilities in the metaverse.
Aspect

Metaverse fabric

Avatars/players

Observation

Can observe and/or log any and all events within the
metaverse.

Cannot hide from observation by the fabric of the
metaverse. Can hide or obfuscate activity from other
avatars in various ways.

Control

Controls all aspects of the metaverse including the
application program interfaces that enable access to
fundamental metaverse services.

Cannot perform activities disallowed by the fabric of the
metaverse. Can potentially create surprising capabilities by
"programming" them from primitive metaverse capabilities.

Ethics

Can put rules in place that help ensure ethical avatar
behavior but cannot prevent all such behavior without
reducing overall quality of experience.

As in the real-world metaverse credibility and reputation
is tied to behavior but avatars are still free to behave in an
ethically dubious fashion.

JUNE 2018

∕

IEEE Technology and Society Magazine

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018