User Behavior Analysis for Predictive Virtual Reality Applications: An Ethical and Data Security Perspective

Abstract

Virtual and Augmented reality are emerging, immersive, disruptive technologies that are going to change forever the way people interact. It seems, however, that we are not yet fully ready to go through the consistent changes that this technology imposes. Security, privacy, ethics are all issues that are being discussed this very moment and that are accruing the divide between developers and users. With this study, a survey on users and interviews with various experts from different fields will close the gap in which VR/AR technologies still fall. Starting from a short introduction on this technology and the problematic related to it, a number of solution will be proposed in the attempt of creating a best practice, based on the issues highlighted by the users and with the help of the experts, for collecting and processing personal data in a sustainable way for businesses and in respect of the users’ privacy. The aim of this study is also to give a significant input to the ethical debate around the use of these technologies and the effectiveness of the current security awareness techniques; exploring philosophical issues such as responsibility of developers and neutrality of technology will reveal how the cybersecurity perspective can have a say in the present social developments.