# Privacy-Preserving Gaze Data Streaming in Immersive Interactive Virtual Reality: Robustness and User Experience

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.07687 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.07687/

## Key facts

- Cited by 3 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 12 Feb 2024.

## Built on by (most cited first, 3 of 3)

- [GazeMind: A Gaze-Guided LLM Agent for Personalized Cognitive Load Assessment](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.05790/) (2026)
- [Privacy Enhancement for Gaze Data Using a Noise-Infused Autoencoder](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.10918/) (2025)
- [PrivateXR: Defending Privacy Attacks in Extended Reality Through Explainable AI-Guided Differential Privacy](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.16851/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Eye tracking is routinely being incorporated into virtual reality (VR) systems. Prior research has shown that eye tracking data, if exposed, can be used for re-identification attacks. The state of our knowledge about currently existing privacy mechanisms is limited to privacy-utility trade-off curves based on data-centric metrics of utility, such as prediction error, and black-box threat models. We propose that for interactive VR applications, it is essential to consider user-centric notions of utility and a variety of threat models. We develop a methodology to evaluate real-time privacy mechanisms for interactive VR applications that incorporate subjective user experience and task performance metrics. We evaluate selected privacy mechanisms using this methodology and find that re-identification accuracy can be decreased to as low as 14% while maintaining a high usability score and reasonable task performance. Finally, we elucidate three threat scenarios (black-box, black-box with exemplars, and white-box) and assess how well the different privacy mechanisms hold up to these adversarial scenarios. This work advances the state of the art in VR privacy by providing a methodology for end-to-end assessment of the risk of re-identification attacks and potential mitigating solutions.