If Someone Molests An Avatar In A Metaverse, What Then?

Or what if your blue-collar worker feels like a dog on a leash when you put a digital attendance bracelet on him/her? What if algorithms perpetuate caste-based prejudices? These questions have no easy answers, says she. But, at least, someone is asking them.

- Pratima H

She is the founding partner of Feminist Futures. She has worked for the Independent Commission on Multilateralism, the United Nations Development Programme Asia Pacific and the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression. She is a Non-Resident CyberBRICS Fellow at the Fundagao Getulio Vargas FGV) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. To cut it short—Anja Kovacs is a researcher, consultant, writer and public soeaker—actively devoted to new-age battles in a long-running war. She has been fighting for democracy, women rights and equality in the digital age. At the Internet Democracy Project, for instance. Her endeavour is a crusade about realising feminist visions of the digital in society by exploring and addressing power imbalances in the areas of norms, governance and infrastructure. The argument is simple— Stop viewing data as just a resource. Start having an embodied approach to data.

How ironic that issues like consent and privacy have not faded as the world embraced more and more technology they have, instead, become more pronounced than ever. Anja Kovacs, who is now a voice, articulate and hard to ignore, opens the lid on acan of worms as we sit down with her to comprehend privacy in the year 2022. Strangely, these are worms that can turn out to be caterpillars that would morph into butterflies— provided, we get them out of their cocoons. And to do that, we would need to pierce some of our own bubbles. Let’s begin.

How grave is the word privacy’ today? Has it become more implausible to attain and maintain than before? For women, specially?