In the Big Tech Metaverse, is privacy an option? Metaverse will be built by massive corporations: but how exactly will they do it?

The world's largest companies go all-in on Metaverse, an alternative virtual reality world combining work, leisure, services and more. While they look for the best way to make everyone join in, there are some mutual safety concerns to address.

In October 2021, Facebook changed its name to Meta. With that, a newly-minted "social technology company" started focusing on Metaverse. In a founder's letter posted by the CEO Mark Zuckerberg, it was described as the place where you can "get together with friends and family, work, learn, play, shop, create."

Mere months later, in January 2022, another major player joined the ranks. With the $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Microsoft's chairman and CEO Satya Nadella announced a similar, but ever-so-slightly different approach, stating that it's gaming that will have a "key role in the development of metaverse platforms."

Metaverse can be a virtual 3D environment, where you roam freely, go to a Netflix house to watch something with friends and later visit a bank to consult about your loan. More and more major companies will give their best shot at owning a stake in this new trend. But in order to look forward, we need to look back – and see what dangers the promised Big Tech Metaverse might bring us. Before everyone's plugged into a brand new world, we might need to set a new list of rules.

Security as the foundation

The idea of people putting their work, play, and personal connections into one platform must sound very endearing to every company proposing its own Metaverse.

However, putting all your eggs in one basket can also be incredibly risky for users. For instance, Facebook, with over 3 billion active users, has a well-documented trail of data security and privacy problems.

Since its launch in 2004, data from hundreds of millions of Facebook accounts has been leaked online. Information collected from the unwitting users has been used to target them heavily in political campaigns, and the investigation by Wall Street Journal points to Meta being aware of their platforms' negative effects on its users' mental health. Research conducted by pCloud also finds Facebook and Meta-owned Instagram to be selling the biggest percentage of collected user data to third parties.

The gaming industry isn't safe, either. With Microsoft seemingly looking to combine its Xbox infrastructure with the concept of Metaverse, its new acquisition, Blizzard Entertainment, suffered from data breaches as well: exposing email addresses, hashed passwords, personal security questions, and mobile authenticators.

Major companies have access to heaps of our data already. The introduction of Metaverse can easily lead to companies asking users to give away even more. In an interview with CyberNews, Camila Serrano, Chief Security Officer of MediaPeanut stated that "companies will surely gather information from things like wearable devices, microphones, heart and respiratory monitors, and user interactions to the extent that we have never seen before.".

Personal information collected for identification, tracking, and advertisement can easily become even more extensive.

The information Big Tech companies already possess is incredibly valuable as it is. With even more personal data available, there will also be more incentive for hackers to try and claim it. In turn, the schemes of appropriating this extensive data can become even more elaborate.

Stories of people giving away their private information, losing social media or video game accounts are commonplace – and resulting in real-life damages. With Metaverse aiming to put even more of our activities and data in one place, there is also much more to lose.

Meta knows data security is a problem – this is a topic covered in Mark Zuckerberg's Founder's Letter. "Privacy and safety need to be built into the Metaverse from day one", he says, and adds that it will also require "new forms of governance".

Who – and how – exactly will govern the metaverse, and guarantee its security and safety, we still don't know. But we'll need to find answers to these questions – before our newly-built virtual worlds, with relationships and careers – get blown to smithereens.

Race for mass adoption

In general, however, people are interested in the concept of elaborate virtual worlds. In fact, they've been there for years – in the gaming industry. Second Life, launched in 2003, offered a digital reality world, letting its inhabitants socialize with one another, own property within the platform, and even make real-world money.

Activision Blizzard, now owned by Microsoft, had 26 million active users in Q4 of 2021, with its "Warcraft" series including a vast online fantasy "World of Warcraft" multiplayer game.

Released in 2004, it features a world where people can work together in guilds, make friends, chat, and fight.

Newer titles formed their own versions of the alternative universe as well. Roblox includes millions of user-generated worlds (or Experiences), where the players can interact, play, and socialize with one another. A battle royale game Fortnite also hosts huge live concerts – the Travis Scott show attracted over 12 million live viewers. The concept is clearly working: people are interested in virtual worlds.

But while these numbers might look big, it's just a drop in the ocean. 12 million people in a live show or 26 million people in Blizzard's user base pales in comparison to the 3 billion active monthly Facebook users. It's those 3 billion people that Meta wants to sell its Metaverse to. But while playing Fortnite, World of Warcraft, or Roblox requires just a standard office-grade laptop, the VR Metaverse requires a lot more – including a powerful headset.

The cost of Metaverse

Facebook's 2014 acquisition of Oculus, a virtual reality product startup, now makes a lot of sense. The investment, looking peculiar to many at the time, now seems incredibly obvious. Meta now produces its own VR and Metaverse hardware. It is likely to sell it at a loss, hoping to make as many people as possible buy into Meta's version of Metaverse.

This is something already done by Microsoft and its Xbox consoles. The Protocol reported on the Epic v. Apple antitrust trial, where Lori Wright, head of business development at Xbox stated that the company sells consoles at a loss. Then, the loss is subsidized by game sales and subscriptions.

With both Microsoft and Meta making their own hardware and investing heavily into the future of Metaverse, we can expect it to be both widespread and affordable. In order to build a true alternative world, where work, play, and personal relationships intertwine, companies will need hundreds of millions, or even billions of people to participate.

Looking to join the Metaverse, ordinary people will make their choice based on several factors. For many, a promise of a more affordable and powerful Metaverse-capable VR device, letting them use the benefits of the platform, may seem much more valuable than their own data security and ownership.

With all that in mind – one of the main questions is, what will be the incentives for companies to build and maintain these experiences? If it's the world built on harvesting and selling our data, should there be widespread regulations for each Metaverse project?

Mark Zuckerberg's words of "new forms of governance" ring true – but if it will be Meta policing Meta, over the things done by Meta, according to Meta's rulebook, it might not be the alternative world utopia it often claims to be. Instead, it could be a way to get as much information from each user as possible. In the end, the rules of Metaverse will be shaped by the companies building it.

Everyone needs to make a decision

Metaverse is a gamble. Whoever can find the best solution, attracting the most people will eventually shape our understanding of what Metaverse is and what it should do.

But there are serious dangers associated with going all-in on metaverse, and we might get burned before we sort this out. Maybe it's crypto's big chance to shine. Decentralized in its nature, including built-in security, guaranteeing ownership of items and data over a shared network – crypto can get its first solid real-life use. The crypto world is already claiming its stake in the Multiverse.

Companies, such as Sandbox, are already building decentralized blockchain multiverses, with the express intent of stopping big tech companies, giving everyone a chance to claim ownership of their part of the Internet. Decentraland allows people to purchase land they can navigate, build, and monetize. It now houses various projects, such as a virtual Sotheby's art gallery.

Maybe there's something entirely different altogether, that can solve all of Metaverse's privacy and security problems, while still making the buy-in simple and affordable.

But before we all jump in head first, we need to make sure that the future we're given is the future we want. What things it will do, and how secure it will be, depends entirely on the public's perception and mass adoption.

Written by CyberNews exclusively for Entrepreneur. CyberNews is a research-based online publication that helps people navigate a safe path through their increasingly complex digital lives.