Buon s.Stefano! <https://theintercept.com/2016/12/23/virtual-reality-allows-the-most-detailed...> But as the tech industry continues to build VR’s social future, the very systems that enable immersive experiences are already establishing new forms of shockingly intimate surveillance. Once they are in place, researchers warn, the psychological aspects of digital embodiment — combined with the troves of data that consumer VR products can freely mine from our bodies, like head movements and facial expressions — will give corporations and governments unprecedented insight and power over our emotions and physical behavior. [] Fred Jennings, an attorney with the digital rights-focused law firm Tor Ekeland, PC, says that if the plaintiffs in the Illinois biometric privacy case prevail, it could establish a foothold for future efforts to limit the intimate data collected by VR and AR platforms. But unlike traditional biometric data, like fingerprints and DNA, the murky legal definition of data that records a wide range of voluntary and involuntary physical movements makes it difficult to legislate what can and can’t be done with that data once it’s collected. “The problem is it falls into this gray area in between medical data, which is pretty well litigated and protected, and communications data,” says Jennings. Transparency would also need to be a crucial part of any regulation, he says, because in many cases it’s not clear to what extent behavioral analytics platforms have already been integrated into consumer VR products and apps. Facebook, CognitiveVR, and Yotta Technologies did not respond to inquiries about how VR analytics platforms are currently being deployed and how the data they collect might be used. Oculus’s privacy policy specifically states that it collects “physical movements and dimensions” from users in order to “customize your experiences based on your online activities” and “market to you.” The company also claims the right to share that information with third parties including Facebook, as well as access and preserve it in order to “detect, prevent and address fraud or other illegal activity,” among other uses. Last April, the permissive language led Sen. Al Franken to send an open letter to Oculus expressing concerns about the privacy of Oculus Rift users. []