Usability, Acceptance, and Trust of Privacy Protection Mechanisms and Identity Management in Social Virtual Reality

February 2025

What is the paper about?

This paper studies how identity management and privacy protection mechanisms affect user experience, acceptance, and trust in social virtual reality (VR). It focuses on issues like identity theft, embodied harassment, and data privacy, and investigates both existing or novel countermeasures, such as motion biometric verification and avatar authenticity visualization, from user and usability perspectives. The research includes a user study with 52 participants to evaluate the usability and effectiveness of these mechanisms in promoting security and trust in social VR platforms.

What are the results?

• Motion Verification Methods: Passive verification considered better at completing the tasks; active verification considered more pleasurable to use; participants felt safer more confident in the system performance under continuous verification.
• User Awareness and Online Disclosure: There are different levels of disclosure across social VR contexts. After experiencing privacy mechanisms, users were more willing to use realistic avatars and real identities in some contexts, such as business and entertainment. Meanwhile, user awareness negatively impacts personal information sharing.
• Privacy Preference on Protection Mechanisms: Users valued authenticity but also desired autonomy, fairness and reciprocity in the system design of protection mechanisms. They also have security & privacy concerns of abuse of biometrics verification and identity management.

What are possible fields of application?

• Social VR Platforms: To improve security and trust of social VR applications, specially for serious or professional contexts.
• Professional Environments: Business meetings or educational platforms can use these mechanisms for safe, authentic interactions.
• Social Activities and Entertainments: Enhancing safety in online social activities (e.g., chat rooms, exhibitions, conferences) or entertainments (e.g., games, concerts) by reducing impersonation and harassment risks.
• Healthcare and Therapy: Where trust and authenticity are crucial for virtual consultations or support groups.

How does the research in the paper contribute to shaping the metaverse?

The research provides practical insights for creating trustworthy, secure, and user-friendly social VR environments, essential for the metaverse. By addressing privacy and identity concerns, it lays the groundwork for balancing user autonomy with community safety. These mechanisms encourage authentic engagement while respecting privacy, critical for fostering a safe and inclusive metaverse where users feel confident sharing personal and professional spaces.

Reference

Lin, J., Rack, C., Wienrich, C., & Latoschik, M. E. (2024). Usability, Acceptance, and Trust of Privacy Protection Mechanisms and Identity Management in Social Virtual Reality. 2024 IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR), 130–139. https://doi.org/10.1109/ISMAR62088.2024.00027