Metaverse and Privacy

Gary Weingarden, Counsel, Data Protection Officer, Notarize, Inc., USA

From Facebook’s recent decision to rename itself "Meta" to Epic Games’ billion-dollar investment in metaverse technologies, the metaverse has dominated the news and will likely continue to do so over the next years. To date, there is no universally accepted definition for the term "metaverse", and, for many, it suggests a new but still undeveloped future of the internet. According to J.P. Morgan, the metaverse is a seamless convergence of our physical and digital lives, creating a unified, virtual community where we can work, play, relax, transact and socialize. That said, most conceptualizations of the metaverse include the use of virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and avatars, connected by a massive network.

Gary Weingarden is counsel and Data Protection Officer at Notarize, Inc. Before joining Notarize, he was an attorney in the financial services industry, most recently working at Quicken Loans Inc. and some of its affiliated companies. Gary has advised clients about contracts, privacy, security, and e-commerce issues for over a decade and has been practicing law for 28 years. He is a graduate of The University of Michigan Law School and is a member of (ISC)2, ISACA, IAPP, and is a licensed to practice law in Hawaii and Michigan. He has multiple certifications in privacy (CIPP/E, CIPM, CDPSE, and CIPT among them), Security, and Compliance and Ethics. He has authored multiple articles on privacy law.

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