Unravelling The Metaverse Matrix: Navigating Privacy Protection within Modelling and Simulation Platforms

This article examines how personal data are regulated in emerging modelling and simulation environments, including computer games, mobile apps, and digital twin platforms. This article centers on a specific type of simulated and modelling environment, namely the metaverse. This article considers the privacy issues that arise when people subscribe to and participate in modelling and simulation platforms where vast amounts of data are collected, disclosed and stored. Such data may be vulnerable to misuse by the platform and third parties. This article considers Meta’s “horizons metaverse” platform as a case study for an immersive modelling and simulation platform. It examines the way in which personal data is used in the context of the metaverse and the mechanisms by which the United States and the European Union regulate such data. This article sheds light on the adequacies and inadequacies of existing legal protections and considers the way in which privacy by design may assist in filling the gaps in the current regulatory framework.