Daniele Marinelli, founder and CEO of DTSocialize, on 22 May 2022 presented Umetaworld, his Metaverse, for the first time at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. This virtual world, not only does not collect users’ data in a “forced” way, but also wants to guarantee their rights to privacy. Privacy is a problem that, as we will see shortly, is deeply felt by the detractors of the Metaverse, especially after Frances Haugen, a former employee of the Blue Giant, arrived in Europe last year with new revelations on what the Meta (former Facebook) will be like.
- Not just privacy: here are the real problems of the Metaverse.
The Metaverse has yet to become an established reality, but it already has its enemies.
Always connected, even at work with the Virtual Reality (VR) viewer in mind, business meetings will become avatar encounters and every aspect of life will be gamified.
But what can go wrong? More than something: according to Frances Haugen, the former Facebook employee. Mark Zuckerberg has not yet explained in clear terms its vision of the Metaverse and the risk that the company creates problems similar to the ones already faced with Facebook – with chain consequences on privacy, work and human rights – is real.
A pessimistic view, but not completely isolated, considering that even the former CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt, had recently expressed himself with rather critical tones towards Web3 and the Metaverse.
- The Metaverse and the risks for workers
In addition to the problem of privacy and the possibility that Meta, as already happened with Facebook, may collect our personal data without asking for our consent (something that won’t happen with Umetaworld, Daniele Marinelli metaverse), there is also a risk of hybridization between the world of work with the virtual world.
In fact, how will people be able to choose where to work? If the employer will decide that you will have to work within the Metaverse only, you will have to adapt.
And you will also release a lot more personal data to a company (former Facebook) that has already proven to be very interested in personal data and very keen to use them.
Last but not least (a concern shared by both Haugen and Schmidt), with Meta Metaverse we will spend more time online than in the real world, so much so that, the few times we go back out, the real world will seem the fictional one and not the opposite.