Should We Be Able to See What Others Are Seeing in SL?

Sarah Nerd of Your2ndPlace has a useful if disturbing tutorial for a little-known feature in the Advanced tab of the Second Life viewer: Show Look At, which reveals where nearby avatars are looking.  It's displayed as a colored 3D crosshair, as above, and changes its hue according to the avatar's actions.  (When the person has selected an object to look at, for example, the crosshair turns pink.)

Ms. Nerd offers up her guide for people who've complained about unwanted voyeurs using the SL camera controls to spy into private homes.  With Show Look At enabled, you at least now know who's obtrusively peering in your personal space, and take precautions. That's one advantage that most people will agree is an unalloyed good. 

Of course, there's another use that's probably more controversial: with this feature, you're now able to tell where anyone is looking, whether they're violating your privacy or not, whether you've asked their permission or not.  In the real world, you're generally able to tell where a person is looking by the direction their head is turned, and the position of their eyes.  In Second Life, however, it's not.  Your avatar can be faced in one direction, while actually staring at something fifty behind you, for instance.  There's all sorts of ethical benefits to see things that would otherwise require moving your avatar.  But is it a good idea to make your perception a point of public record without your consent?  There, I'm not so sure.

Comments

[Ann Otoole]

Personally I think the sight of dozens of cross hairs on my crotch messes up the view of Second Life so I don't bother with it nor do I care.

That said I think it would be funny if someone made a bloodshot perv eye that tracked the look at, positioned itself at an appropriate offset. and emitted a particle stream back to the cross hair's owner.

Oh and to all those that think they need privacy:
Buy a private island. Then control access to the island. End of perv cam issue.

[Doubledown Tandino]

Yes we should have it. If you're that worried about someone zooming in trying to get an upskirt shot, wear pants.

[Yak]

Doubledown, there is such a thing... at "Curio Obscura" It is a top hat that flies off your head when you're looking at something or someone(it has a little propeller), then a little door opens and a camera (your viewpont) pops out. (N.B. I'm not associated with Curio Obscura).

[Yak]

sorry Doubledown, the last comment was ment for Ann Otoole

[Ordinal Malaprop]

Yak, there are several things around which do that, but they require the person looking to be wearing them or otherwise grant camera tracking permissions.

[Truthseeker]

Eh, just seems like another bit of Linden Lab's patented HDLU (High-Drama, Low-Usefulness) Technology™...

I disagree strongly that the feature is an "unalloyed good," since it doesn't *label* the little crosshairs, so you can't actually tell *which* of your sleazoid neighbors is piggybacking their jollies onto your own little private porn scenario.

Thus, it gives you nothing direct to confront "teh pervo" with, or to base an AR on (outside of some seriously flimsy circumstantial evidence), just a vague sense of outrage that "ZOMG someone's DOING SOMETHING to me!!!" (even tho they aren't really, when you think about it)...

Ann's absolutely right: the only privacy in SL is via obscurity. If you can't afford your own island, the best you can do is set up a skybox at some random height above 2500 meters, keep text or voice to the private channels, and even then accept that someone *still* may find your furiously-copulating avs, unless you stay off the poseballs, too.

Really, the best defense, tho, is simply coming to grips with the fact that SL is *not* RL: We've got different capabilities and limitations in a virtual space than we do in the physical world, and must adjust our expectations accordingly...

[Bettina Tizzy]

Torley mentioned this ability in a tutorial once and I tried it out at a couple of days for fun. What I discovered is that most people are looking at their own avatars. I don't think this is just about vanity; I often use my avatar as an anchor while I'm camming around, so not necessarily gazing at myself.

After a day or two of this, the crosshairs became annoying and I got rid of it.

The only real privacy in Second Life is afforded via anonymity. Most everyone ignores the antics of a newbie, whatever they may be.

[Nexii Malthus]

I think it would be a stupid idea to remove this, as it provides an important human expressional clue already in what is the extremely limited options available for controlling what your avatar does. SL is by design to bring the human presence forward, if you remove the avatar you remove the human and we have what is the flat web or a bare chatroom.

It is important to try expose the human, because that is one of the most defining aspects that has always intrigued me in SL. I used to be a rather social outcast, but as voice catched on with all the other elements combined it has greatly enriched my otherwise boring life.

The mask of anonimity is what has caused hate and deceit to fill the abyss, just look at the communities that have come up in this flat web medium, for example 4chan.

It is why there is also such a huge detention rate, that people find it very hard to grasp exposing themselves, which is what is not normally is associated with the internet.

I think to bring the human cause further, LLs' primary mission, is to continue finding ways to ever more increase communication and information flow.

Yes, I agree that eventually data mining will be a concern, but that is what is happening in RL and is inevitable. But SL is the only program in existence that has broken the notion, the mould, of what is otherwise considered the biggest evils, but yet, it is so successful? Does that not show something bigger at hand here? That the world is in the hands of the residents that make it?

Doom and gloom is so easy to spill, but actual positive advancement on the other hand is always just too far so easily taken for granted and ignored.

[Gonta Maltz]

The viewer needs to know where avatars are looking in order to animate them doing the same thing (Moving their eyes, heads, pointing arms while editing, etc.)

Hurpa derpa derp.

[Gahum Riptide]

However, people can easily point at something in front of them, and then cam out and swing their cams into someone's house, and the people there won't know.

Privacy in SL is mostly an illusion, unless you have a private island where no one's allowed in.

Anyway, showing look at is a fun way to see at parties who's getting checks out the most. I've got a friend who will walk in, and suddenly his av is covered in pink cross hairs. I also find it funny to see cross hairs show up on my av,

[Archie Lukas]

Am I going to get IM's of the variety
"Stop looking at my breasts....."

all the time now?

(PS I never look, noooooo!)