Protecting Privacy in the UAE Metaverse: Policies and Regulations

This paper will first overview Web 2.0 applications, data privacy and protection issues, and the policies and regulations imposed in the UAE. This is done to compare how the data privacy and protection issues are addressed for the Metaverse, which is under development and not actually in use in the current age. This will automatically link various issues to the corresponding laws because web service providers are bound to adhere to the laws of the land where the data is collected. This paper will then focus on proposed laws and amendments to the existing laws required to mitigate the projected issues. This is achieved by comparing similar issues in Web 2.0 applications and the laws that are then enforced. Each projected issue will link to the corresponding law and what action needs to be taken to prescribe the law to the Metaverse. In the next section, various aspects of the Metaverse that make it different from Web 2.0 applications are highlighted, and the related data privacy and protection issues are projected with possible examples to give a more precise understanding. Finally, all the proposed laws will be compiled to provide the framework at the end of the paper. This comprehensive framework is not just a theoretical exercise but a necessary tool that can help formulate specific laws later or even before the projected issues become practical and cause massive damage where laws have to be enforced immediately, which is tricky and may have more adverse effects. This will enable the reader to see the possible threats and loopholes and thus concur with the projected issues.