Tracked but not trapped: Negotiating body tracking technologies for embodiment and privacy protection in VR

Abstract

Emerging virtual reality (VR) devices have been built with a range of tracking technologies, including hand tracking, head tracking, facial expression recognition, and eye tracking. These technologies enable users to experience virtual selves through diverse sensorimotor feedback. Meanwhile, body tracking has raised users' privacy concerns over the collection of biometric data. To understand how individuals perceive their embodiment experience and privacy risks, this study employs a blended approach, combining in-depth interviews and focus groups after engaging participants in multiple tracking-based VR activities. The findings suggest that body tracking elevated individuals’ sense of embodiment through five different bodily experiences. Moreover, due to networked privacy challenges along both spatial and temporal dimensions, participants preferred to deactivate facial recognition in virtual spaces. Our findings seek to provide an updated framework for the sense of embodiment and capture how individuals balance their bodily experiences and perceived privacy risks based on the promises and perils of tracking technologies.