As virtual reality (VR) headset adoption continues to grow, researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, have discovered that head and hand motion data collected from VR headsets could compromise user privacy. This data could potentially identify individuals with a high level of accuracy, revealing personal information such as height, weight, age, and marital status. One study analysed data from over 55,000 user accounts on a popular rhythm-based VR game, identifying individuals with 94% accuracy using just 100 seconds of motion data. Another survey of over 1,000 participants found that machine learning algorithms could consistently infer more than 40 personal and privacy-sensitive variables from motion data. The researchers highlight the need for privacy-preserving mechanisms in multi-user VR applications.
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