Metaverse and data protection: We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them

Despite the fact that the metaverse is still in its infancy, we have already seen quite a few publications about the metaverse. All authors conclude that privacy and data security issues will vastly exacerbate in the metaverse and that obtaining any form of meaningful informed consent will prove a practical impossibility. Rather than drawing the obvious conclusion that the system of notice and consent under the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)1 therefore no longer works, they all propose ways to improve the system. One of the solutions proposed is to enable user-consented privacy trading, where users can sell their personal data in return for benefits, which is expected to enable the flow of data