Facebook whistleblower warns Metaverse will repeat 'all the harms'

cointelegraph.com:

Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen has taken aim at Meta in a new interview, suggesting that its version of the Metaverse will simply repeat all of its past mistakes.

In an interview with Politico, Haugen said:

In 2021 Huagen leaked thousands of internal documents from Facebook to the Securities and Exchange Commission and The Wall Street Journal. Her experience working for the company has left her with concerns about privacy issues and about letting the corporation amass data about every aspect of user’s interactions in the Metaverse.

"I'm super concerned about how many sensors are involved. When we do the Metaverse, we have to put lots more microphones from Facebook; lots more other kinds of sensors into our homes," she said.

"You don't really have a choice now on whether or not you want Facebook spying on you at home. We just have to trust the company to do the right thing."

Haugen isn’t the only one concerned. According to a recent survey, 70% of people don’t trust Meta to handle privacy properly.

Andy Yen, CEO of encrypted email service ProtonMail is also concerned with the unilateral powers of Big Tech giants like Meta. Last week, he said in an interview, that his own company, Proton, will only be able to survive based on the goodwill of tech giants.

“Tech giants could today remove us from the Internet with zero legal or financial repercussions,” he said.

Yen has also raised concerns about Big Tech controlling the Metaverse in the past, telling Newsweek last year that Meta was “building a new infrastructure where they control everything. They control the device, they have the VR headsets, you're now in their world, on their devices, on their platform."

Yen said that given their track record, he doesn’t believe we