Usability, Acceptance, and Trust of Privacy Protection Mechanisms and Identity Management in Social Virtual Reality

In social virtual reality (social VR), users are threatened by potential cybercrimes, such as identity theft, sensitive data breaches, and embodied harassment. These concerns are heightened by the increasing interest in the metaverse, the advancements in photorealistic 3D user reconstructions, and the rising incidents of online privacy violations. Designing secure social VR applications that protect users while enhancing their experience, acceptance and trust remains a challenge. This article investigates potential identity management solutions in social VR, and their impacts on usability and user acceptance. We developed a social VR prototype with novel and established countermeasures, including motion biometric verification, and conducted a study with 52 participants. Our findings reveal diverse preferences for identity management and underscore the importance of authenticity, autonomy, and reciprocity. Key findings include: passive verification is favored for pragmatic user experience, while active verification is preferred for its hedonic quality; continuous or periodic verification strengthens users’ confidence in their privacy; and while user awareness promotes authentic engagement, it may also diminish the willingness to disclose personal information. This research not only offers foundational insights into the evaluated scenarios and countermeasures, but also sheds light on the designs of more trustworthy and inclusive social VR applications.