Revisiting Personal Data Protection in the Context of the Metaverse

Introduction: it is impossible to imagine a full-fledged life of a modern person outside of his communication with the digital space. Today, an innovative phenomenon of immersive digital space, the metaverse, is at the stage of scientific and practical comprehension. The creation of a secure infrastructure for the functioning of the metaverse should provide an effective mechanism for legal regulation. The issue of protecting users’ personal data in the metaverse finds the greatest response among Russian and foreign scientists. The lack of a clearly defined position on the issue does not allow talking about the further development of the legal regulation of the metaverse sphere. The Russian legal doctrine contains few large-scale scientific papers on the issue of personal data in the context of the metaverse. This area is often mentioned only indirectly as one of the promising areas of legal regulation. The purpose of the study is to identify the problematic areas of ensuring the protection of users’ personal data within the metaverse based on Russian law. Methods: the methodological system of research is formed by such methods as, in particular, formal legal analysis, synthesis, forecasting, and dialectical materialism. Results: the innovative information objects in the metaverse (digital avatar, iris) are identified, which can be considered as personal data of users; one of the possible solutions for ensuring the protection of personal data within the metaverse is identified through increasing digital literacy in managing one’s own data.