Privacy in Immersive Extended Reality: Exploring User Perceptions, Concerns, and Coping Strategies
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Date
2024-05-11
Authors
Hadan, Hilda
Wang, Derrick
Nacke, Lennart
Zhang-Kennedy, Leah
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Association for Computing Machinery
Abstract
Extended Reality (XR) technology is changing online interactions, but its granular data collection sensors may be more invasive to user privacy than web, mobile, and the Internet of Things technologies. Despite an increased interest in studying developers’ concerns about XR device privacy, user perceptions have rarely been addressed. We surveyed 464 XR users to assess their awareness, concerns, and coping strategies around XR data in 18 scenarios. Our findings demonstrate that many factors, such as data types and sensitivity, affect users’ perceptions of privacy in XR. However, users’ limited awareness of XR sensors’ granular data collection capabilities, such as involuntary body signals of emotional responses, restricted the range of privacy-protective strategies they used. Our results highlight a need to enhance users’ awareness of data privacy threats in XR, design privacy-choice interfaces tailored to XR environments, and develop transparent XR data practices.
Description
Keywords
user privacy, privacy perception, virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality, extended reality, privacy-seeking strategies