Document Type
5 minute oral
Start Date
6-3-2026 2:20 PM
Description
Extended Reality (XR) is an umbrella term that integrates Virtual, Mixed and Augmented Realities. Each modality presents new forms of digital experiences, offering unique opportunities, benefits and risks. Additionally, newer iterations of XR leverage Artificial Intelligence (AI) to enhance numerous applications. This enhancemen is sustained through new levels and contexts of data capture, including continuous biometric data collection (gaze, face and gait) and incidental bystander capture. This paper investigates the implications of XR technologies on data privacy, and the need for considerations of collective social privacy. The paper argues that, given the very narrow definition and categorization of biometric data under the GDPR, there is a lacuna in protections when it comes to gait. With the above-mentioned concerns in mind, the paper aims to answer the question of How does the mass capture of gait biometrics in XR environments threaten social stability by transforming anonymous public interactions into a permanent state of identifiable surveillance?
Included in
Am I walking straight? Gait, the new frontier of biometric identification
Extended Reality (XR) is an umbrella term that integrates Virtual, Mixed and Augmented Realities. Each modality presents new forms of digital experiences, offering unique opportunities, benefits and risks. Additionally, newer iterations of XR leverage Artificial Intelligence (AI) to enhance numerous applications. This enhancemen is sustained through new levels and contexts of data capture, including continuous biometric data collection (gaze, face and gait) and incidental bystander capture. This paper investigates the implications of XR technologies on data privacy, and the need for considerations of collective social privacy. The paper argues that, given the very narrow definition and categorization of biometric data under the GDPR, there is a lacuna in protections when it comes to gait. With the above-mentioned concerns in mind, the paper aims to answer the question of How does the mass capture of gait biometrics in XR environments threaten social stability by transforming anonymous public interactions into a permanent state of identifiable surveillance?