Interpol this week unveiled what it called a Metaverse for police around the world while signaling that a lawless virtual universe will not be tolerated.
The Interpol Metaverse is “fully operational” and available on the International Police cloud service, we are told. To us, it seems like a shared VR space that you connect to using a suitable VR headset. Once inside, you can visit a virtual version of the organization’s headquarters in Lyon, France; interact with other cops’ avatars just as they can interact with yours; and take training courses, such as learning all about forensic investigations.
The police have a 3D chat room. Well, at least it saves them a trip to France.
What Interpol HQ looks like in virtual form… Yeah, great. Source: Interpol
“The Metaverse has the potential to transform every aspect of our daily lives with huge implications for law enforcement,” Madan Oberoi, Interpol’s executive director of technology and innovation, said in a statement. canned.
“For the police to understand the metaverse, we have to experience it.”
Rather implying that the cops are interested in patrolling or probing the verse. Indeed, the entire launch of the service is driven by concerns that crimes are organized and committed in virtual reality, and police want to be able to respond and investigate as they would in the real world. Facebook’s Meta and other tech giants are trying to rekindle the VR craze with software and headsets, all to get people to work, shop and watch ads in virtual shared spaces of Metaverse.
Worryingly, Interpol said it had formed an “expert group [to] represent the concerns of law enforcement on the global stage” and ensure that the virtual reality terrain is “secure by design”. It may be too late for that.
The plod’s virtual service was revealed during Interpol’s 90th General Assembly, held in New Delhi, India. From a video of the launch, you can rest assured that the Metaverse, however you define it, is always a group of people seated in business casual attire staring at touch controllers while masked with headsets.
Are they attending an avatar-led class on airline passenger screening? Or dismantle a Nike NFT criminal network? We will never know, but the surging sense of justice is palpable.
As fraudsters have moved phishing and other scams into these re-emerging virtual reality spaces, physical crimes, including sexual assault, are also happening virtually in these digital worlds.
Interpol Secretary General Jürgen Stock dons a VR headset during his police organization’s meeting in India
It’s not just Interpol that’s worried: The World Economic Forum, at its annual conference in Davos this year, launched an initiative with Microsoft, Meta and others to govern the Metaverse.
As potentially more people use Metaverse technology, international law enforcement expects crime to follow in these imaginary spaces. But what can be considered a crime in a virtual world? Hate language? Planning a terrorist attack? Fraud? Some kind of phishing? Should murder in the metaverse have criminal consequences in the physical world? Some seem to think it should.
“By identifying these risks early on, we can work with stakeholders to shape the necessary governance frameworks and cut off future criminal markets before they are fully formed,” Oberoi said. “Only by having these conversations now can we build an effective response.”
In its announcement, Interpol touted the “many benefits” of the Metaverse for law enforcement, such as remote networking, training, and “collecting and preserving evidence at crime scenes.” It seems that the international organization has already done much of this via video calls and the like.
But maybe wearing virtual reality glasses makes things more fun and playful. Or at least gamelike. ®
#Interpol #moves #Metaverse