How Brands Can Play Safe in an Unruly Metaverse

As a kid, Simon McDougall enthusiastically read the popular sci-fi novel Snow Crash, where people, represented by avatars, could interact with other human beings, jumping back and forth between the real world and a virtual world called the metaverse. He never expected, years later, to watch his son experience a similar version of virtual reality to what McDougall imagined as a child. The metaverse is not a new concept. Gaming companies like Roblox and Epic Games have been building their versions for over a decade now. And brands are keen to make their mark on the digital worlds that have so captured peoples' attention. But, spurred by recent headlines and changing privacy attitudes in digital advertising, conversations about data privacy and peoples' safety are growing louder, as people urge stakeholders to consider privacy before the metaverse is fully functional. Metaverse Marketing Podcast: Metaverse 2030 “We risk reinventing lots of the problems that we've seen in earlier instances of technology, back again in the metaverse,” cautioned McDougall, chief compliance officer at market intelligence company Zoom Info. Key concerns with data collection in the metaverse While the metaverse is in its nascent stage, a key issue felt by compliance experts and agency execs is the disconnect in peoples' expectations of stepping into the metaverse and the amount of personal information that can be collected. As the amount of data available in the metaverse massively increases, so does the ability of intrusive profiling. While online advertising today relies on collecting data to target people, virtual reality headsets like Oculus can track personal data like a person’s eye and body movement, while storing biometric data, a concern that unsettles privacy activists. The same goes for providing privacy notices and consent messages to people who are not interacting with screens. Currently, the regulation still struggles with having to do this when collecting information about people interacting via digitally connected screenless devices, like smart speakers. Without robust regulations in place, experts argue that the existing concerns with online environments and social media now—like biased algorithms having adverse impacts on vulnerable communities, addictive nature of environments having negative impacts on mental health—will be further exacerbated in the metaverse, a three-dimensional virtual environment. Not to mention, in the U.S., unlike the European Union, internet legislation does not guarantee the right to privacy as a fundamental human right. In the U.S., data collection falls under Personally Identifiable Information, which currently no single federal law regulates the protection of. Brands should set expectations For brands in the metaverse, sources imagine they will simply re-engineer their real-world sponsorships into virtual equivalents, but also build fresh opportunities to reach a new audience through different partnerships. “There's work to be done in this immersive world that can make us feel safe and protected,” said Keith Soljacich, head of innovation at Publicis Media. “There is still education needed." Soljacich breaks this thinking into three segments: pre-metaverse, in the metaverse and post-metaverse. A pre-metaverse safety net means establishing expectations, like communicating a clear and direct value exchange for people on how their visit will be beneficial to them, what can they get out of it, and what the value is back to the brand (such as collecting information), according to Soljacich. For example, when Samsung launched its virtual reality space 837X, it prioritized establishing peoples' expectations and connecting with its community, understanding what they want. Through Twitter, the brand announced its events and activations in the metaverse. Once in the metaverse, via signage and prompts, people were instructed on how to participate in challenges and experience the metaverse. The brand also constructed a live chat in the immersive platform where they were in constant communication with users who experienced difficulty if any. Samsung also broke down instructions for anyone who wished to join them in the browser-based 3D virtual world, Decentraland, which also includes the terms of use, leaving no room for miscommunication. Once in the metaverse, people should have privacy and safety options at their fingertips, as they would on Facebook or Twitter. If they are experiencing something they deem uncomfortable, they can alert or report abusive behavior. The same goes for changing privacy settings. “We need those same controls and tools in our metaverse spaces,” added Soljacich who recommends using consumer surveys and analyzing time spent in the metaverse, collecting data to cover both the positive and negative feedback. As opposed to a regular six-second ad, the ask from a user to spend time in the metaverse with a brand is comparatively high making it critical to define user expectations. For which “brands will need to work harder to acquire customers in the metaverse,” he noted. Multiple regulatory flagbearers There is a wave of privacy legislation at the state level to address privacy online, all of which can apply to the metaverse, said Caitlin Fennessy, vice president and chief knowledge officer at the International Association of Privacy Professionals. This "will be added impetus toward federal commercial privacy legislation in general, and that those principles will be well suited to adapt to the metaverse,” Fennessy added. Yet there's room for more. And companies alone cannot be the flagbearers of these policies. “If a policy is collaboratively created based on inputs from companies, privacy experts, and stakeholders of the tech world, it’s going to be more seamless and beneficial for everyone,” said Pedram Tabibi, partner at law firm Meltzer Lippe And while some stakeholders fear a raft of regulations before the metaverse has taken shape could hamper the creative potential, for brands, setting expectations and being privacy-focused is paramount. “If you are simple and transparent in what you're doing, and you're communicating what you're going to be doing, you're going to build a rapport and trust," said McDougall. WPP CEO Mark Read Talks Energy Clients, the Metaverse and Coca-Cola

Platforms

How Brands Can Play Safe in a (Somewhat) Unruly Metaverse

Clear communications and setting expectations is key

Trishla Ostwal

About

Subscriptions

Events

Publications

WORK SMARTER - LEARN, GROW AND BE INSPIRED.

Subscribe today!

Trishla Ostwal