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[Trojita]

https://www.extremetech.com/gaming/303310-facebook-oculus-vr-data-advertising

Well, here it is. When Facebook bought Oculus, it assured users that it wouldn’t be using any data gathered via Oculus VR for advertising. It’s a question that’s come up again and again over the years, and it’s always been answered the same way: Oculus and Facebook do not and will not combine data...

Except, now, they do. Oculus has announced changes to its privacy policy regarding how data is shared between Oculus and Facebook when you connect an Oculus Rift to your FB account. You are not required to connect your Oculus account to Facebook in order to use your Rift. Oculus’ FAQ claims that one reason for the tighter integration between the two companies is that Facebook wants to create more social experiences in VR, and the company is launching a new social platform for VR gamers to connect on Facebook. That’s not a terrible idea given that VR suffers from a limited player base, but it’s not an option I’d choose, personally. I’m more a fan of single-player games in the first place.

As far as what data the company is going to collect and use, here’s the official statement:

Facebook will now use information about your Oculus activity, like which apps you use, to help provide these new social features and more relevant content, including ads. Those recommendations could include Oculus Events you might like to attend or ads for VR apps available on the Oculus Store. These changes won’t affect third-party apps and games, and they won’t affect your on-device data.
If you choose not to log into Facebook on Oculus, we won’t share data with Facebook to allow third parties to target advertisements to you based on your use of the Oculus Platform.

The FAQ offers additional information on which data is shared, including:

The VR apps you use, so we can recommend new apps you haven’t tried yet
Your Facebook friend list, so you can join your Facebook friends who are also on Oculus in VR if you choose to
Invites and acceptances for events you create
Information like your name and messaging metadata for chats in Oculus, so that Facebook can send those messages
Your photos and related content like captions, likes and comments if you use the “share photos” feature to share photos from VR to your Facebook Timeline
Information about your Oculus activity, like which apps you use, to show you ads for other VR apps you may like

You have the option to stop sharing data with Facebook by de-linking your Oculus and FB accounts. If you do so, a small amount of data will still be shared (accounts that have been flagged for abuse, for example, are flagged as such on both FB and Oculus sites).

Even when you pay, you are still the product.

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

Trust. Obey. Consume.

 

[KyoZz]

Well I think it's time to sell my Rift and get a Steam Index

 

[nowhat]

Trust. Obey. Consume.

They live, we sleep.

 

[garballax]

shocker. at least they're transparent about how scummy they are. and you can kind of opt-out, but i still wouldn't trust Facebook any more than i could throw 'em.

If you choose not to log into Facebook on Oculus, we won’t share data with Facebook to allow third parties to target advertisements to you based on your use of the Oculus Platform.

 

[GymWolf]

Eh not a big deal in modern days where everything spy on you...

 

[kraspkibble]

i don't have a facebook account. i hate that they own Rift S but valve is charging stupid amounts of money for an Index.

 

[Salmonboy]

Why would you even connect the headset to FB? Use a different account and so forth. Not even a problem if you think about it.

 

[pr0cs]

Not surprised, kinda figured they were doing this already.
Stopped using Facebook altogether so I guess it doesn't really affect me.
One way or the other Facebook was going to leverage this platform to monetize all the money they're throwing into development

 

[jaysius]

Well I think it's time to sell my Rift and get a Steam Index

I wouldn't be confident that they're never going to start doing this themselves.

 

[DeepEnigma]

I for one, am SHOCKED!

 

[Keihart]

This is probably very similar to Stadia's endgame

 

[Alexios]

Why would you sign in with a facebook account somewhere other than facebook and where you don't want facebook to use that data (the data you have already given them elsewhere since it's the same company, lol)? Clearly it matters if they do it mandatory or without consent, which I'd guess was probably what they meant they wouldn't do previously, as an option where's the problem? Isn't this actually something to make an example of as the right way to do such things and to request that it remains as is presented here thereafter (rather than change into a mandatory facebook login in the future for oculus and other not-strictly-facebook services)? Anyone who actually cares about privacy can just, you know, not even have a facebook account to begin with, just get an empty dummy account without any real information if it ever does become mandatory in the future I guess.

 

[mortal]

Fucking. Shocker...

 

[Maybe It's Medicine?]

I mean it's really not surprising sadly. It strikes me as odd on how much people are willing to let companies have their data for free when it's clearly so valuable to them. Products that spy on you should at the very least be free, but somehow these companies have got people paying to give away their data. It's fucking crazy stupid.

 

[The Pleasure]

Time to get off my vr porn. Don't want mark fuckerberg to know what gets me off. Back to vhs for me.

 

[Grinchy]

If a company is just tracking my PC hardware, what games I bought, a demo I tried and how long I tried it before deleting, ect, then so be it. Those are very innocuous things that barely even tie to me.

But...things like "Your photos and related content like captions, likes and comments if you use the “share photos” feature to share photos from VR to your Facebook Timeline" bother the hell out of me. Why does a company think it's entitled to look through my personal photos to determine as much demographic data as they can? What's next? They install a camera inside that takes a picture of your iris for concrete identification?

 

[Sophist]

Everyone is using your data now. Better embrace it or quit internet.

 

[iconmaster]

Of course.

 

[Saber]

Next step is putting a camera in your bathroom.

Everyone is using your data now. Better embrace it or quit internet.

Ok brandoomer.

 

[FranXico]

Oh how surprising

 

[A.Romero]

Ok brandoomer.

Sophist is right, though. At least in it's current form that's the business model.

 

[dottme]

Completely unexpected.