Draft article: for academic use only Do only refer to the published version: De Vries, Katja (2011). Avatars out of Control. Gazira Babeli, Pose Balls and ‘Rape’ in Second Life”, in GUTWIRTH S. et al. (eds), Data Protection : An Element of Choice, Springer, Dordrecht, 2011 (in production). Buy the book at: http://www.springer.com/law/international/book/978-94-007-0640-8 Katja de Vries Corresponding address: Center for Law, Science, Technology & Society Studies Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Pleinlaan 2, 1050, Brussel, Belgium Email: edevries@vub.ac.be Bio Katja de Vries is a PhD researcher in the interdisciplinary group on Law, Science, Technology and Society (LSTS) at the Vrije University Brussel (VUB) working on profiling technologies and data protection. She has studied at Universiteit Leiden, SciencesPo in Paris and at Oxford University.