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Oculus 'Always On' Services and Privacy Policy May Be a Cause for Concern (uploadvr.com)
Will Mason, reporting for Upload VR: It turns out when you install the software to run Facebook's Oculus Rift, it creates a process with full system permissions called "VRServer_x64.exe." This process is always on, and regularly sends updates back to Facebook's servers. The process' main purpose is to help detect when the Rift is turned on and on your face so that it can launch Oculus Home, but the further reaching implications of it are potentially much more salacious. Digging into the Oculus Rift's Privacy Policy reveals that Facebook is not the only company that is able to collect your data, as under the policy "third parties may also collect information about you through the Services," this includes entities on the "related companies" list. The company plans to utilize your data to, among other things, "market to you." Surprised?
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They have 360 degree filming and viewing ability, and their entertainment value is only exceeded by their ability to gather information.
There's no Santa, even Easter rabbits don't lay eggs, and Facebook isn't really free.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
Someone signed up for Facebook is surprised that Facebook collects and sells their personal data? Really? That is literally how they make their money. It is the business they are in.
By now it is well known: if you don't want that kind of harvesting, you don't use Facebook. That means: blocking their address blocks in your firewall, so you don't load their "like" buttons and you don't use their services in any way. You most certainly don't run their software on your machine! If you do that, well, yeah... you get what you deserve.
If you are making a decision to use their services, whether Occulus or anything else, fine, that's your call! But don't complain when they do exactly what they told you they were going to do.
The solution is simple. Do not buy this shit. And, tell your less technical friends. They are actively hostile to their would-be consumers. Just don't fucking buy it. In fact, outright spread the word that Occulus=scum.
Facebook is the worst thing that happened to Oculus.
I don't think that means what you think it means.
"Facebook" occulous rift.. wtf did that happen..
July, 2014
https://games.slashdot.org/sto...
https://www.facebook.com/zuck/...
http://www.theguardian.com/tec...
The exercise is now how to turn this into a device that YOU own.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
You mean I might have to get an ad blocker for my Oculus rift O/S? How terrible...
Jesus you guys are worse than Tipper Gore.
It seems like the purpose of Facebook is to eradicate privacy, wherever it may be. Loneliness, and hate speech are to be eradicated by big Facebook.
Would you make that "hurrr" sound in a verbal discussion?
Even better when people start disabling this background service only to later find their expensive toy no longer works thanks to this always on DRM.
This is precisely why I lost all interest in Oculus the instant I heard that it had been acquired by Facebook.
this times a billion.
i can't believe anyone thought it was going to turn out good with facebook owning it.
you've gotta be fucking stupid to believe thats not going to turn into a shitshow.
I fully expect within 5 years oculus will start doing something like 'watch this ad to continue playing your game with oculus'.
This, along with the insane costs, are why I never really batted much of an eye towards VR stuff even as it started to mature. After seeing facebook buy the rift, I knew exactly how it would end up.
I'd fully expect the PS VR to do similar to be honest. And while I'll reserve judgement until I actually see it, Steam's Vive is probably going to do the same as well.
Sure. But then Microsoft changed the game, and everybody else wants to get in on the action. I mean if people will tolerate their OS spying on them, surely they'll be willing to let something they actually care about spy too, right?
Bleh.
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
This isn't new. the last couple years, most new hardware, particularly stuff that connects to your phone or IoT devices are like this.
fitness bands
smart watches
thermostats (like the Nest)
ODB Readers
Android OS/Windows 10
Even though these devices could easily be managed so all data stays local, either on the device or on a smartphone, companies making them force all data to get uploaded to their servers so they "own" the data [fitbit in particular makes you pay an extra monthly fee to get access to the data you have generated], and let you access it via an app/web page, but also sell that data to anybody walking by with a spare dollar.
Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
This is precisely why I lost all interest in Oculus the instant I heard that it had been acquired by Facebook.
Same here. It is why I am glad there are several competing devices that are due out as well. That said, I am really waiting on one that has a decent field of view.
We were all warned a long time ago that MS products sucked, remember the Magic 8 Ball said, "Outlook not so good"
Indeed. And now we see why Facebook actually bought Occulus.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
The closest I come is:
26083 ? Ssl 0:00 C:\windows\system32\services.exe
I have WINE running because my favorite FTP client is an old Windows program called AbsoluteFTP.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
Microsoft didn't change the game. They upped the ante. The game was already well into the end-game by the time Windows 10 rolled around.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
If I were making fun of you or seeking termination of the conversation then, by all means, I'd vocalize that. I'd even make a funny face and look at them as if I were incredulous that such a person could speak without assistance, walk without hurting themselves or others, and was allowed to use the sharp scissors.
On the other hand, I'd not vocalize that if my goal were to continue a conversation. (Unless it was a close friend who'd said something utterly stupid and I was having fun at their expense.) I'd not use it in a serious discussion, however.
Why'd you ask?
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
The same could be said for most any other transforming technological advances. From radio to automobiles, to television to telephones, to printing to even speech.
Why'd you expect it to be different this time? Did you think we, as a species, suddenly improved? You really don't think you're enlightened, do you? Do you really think that the species is somehow better, more advanced, or improved? Whatever gave you that idea?
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
Thought to myself the Rift is just a monitor stuffed with sensors. Surely I would be able to use it directly with third party software and avoid the inevitable facebook bullshit we all knew was coming. But noo... at the last f*cking second before release they did away with separate runtime downloads and make you install their shitstore + register an account before you even get access to the runtime.
What is sad is how lame Oculus software is. They install very chatty poll happy windows services (managed code consuming ram like its going out of style 24x7), force you download gigabytes worth of BS bloatware you probably don't even care about with no resumption if download goes south and there is not even a way to tell software in which drive/folder it should be installed.
Still have a preorder in queue I will cancel if a way to install runtime only without the BS does not materialize in the next month.
Thank you for once again rehashing FB's data sharing policy.
I'm sorry when the rest of the world found out that FB shares data and uses it for marketing, and how's how they fund the free web services you choose to use, you were on the toilet or picking your nose or something.
Nothing to see here.
E
P.S. "It turns out" is how you start a surprising conclusion to a story, not a an entire paragraph.
Ditto. Then I discovered that these things combine the worst of two things that didn't succeed - Kinect and 3DTVs. I mean, people hated Kinect because it forced them off the couch, and it appears most VR games have you moving in a space, so you not only needed the space Kinect required, but you have to get off. Or you ended up doing what most players did an sat on th e couch gesturing. PS VR seems to do the latter and Vive requires a space as well.
Then the whole glasses thing is what killed 3DTVs, and yet people want to strap huge honking (and heavier than the glasses) headsets? Yes, the good ones are balanced, but still.
Frankly, I think it's going to be like the scene in Tomorrowland where that girl walks in the alternate universe and runs into walls and stuff.
You thought you were buying something innovative and free and open and spent quite a bit of money on it, then learned a while latter that its owners had just sold out to Facebook. I'd say butthurt is exactly how I would feel.
Below the speed of light Special Relativity is one of the most accurate theories in physics - above the speed of light..
. . .And I've got this Ethiopian Prince with some shares he wants to sell if your interested?
Seriously this thing will take full video of everywhere you use it and of all the people around you. It will probably have microphones which will record everything you say. Its very easy to stich all that video together to make 360 picture files, translate speech into text then scan it with AI. Plus the pictures and video of the people will no doubt help make better dossiers of all your friends and family.
Just another step towards full immersion observation. Always on 24 hours a day. Everyone afraid of their TV and computers and phones in case they say something that incriminates them. Gangs of children the most feared because they watch and report on everyone - in the original it was for party loyalty, today its for the likes. In both its because they are taught to hate and fear adults. Facebook is watching you. (sadly its true)
Below the speed of light Special Relativity is one of the most accurate theories in physics - above the speed of light..
In my case, it would make a sound like "burr" only with an H. Sort of like an Ebonics speaker may enunciate "her." Such accents would be found in the middle of the Eastern Coastal States.
However, I'd pronounce it like I'd pronounce 'burr.
I'm more likely to say "durr" or "derp." That dependson whom I'm communicating with an the ultimate goal of that effort.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
I believe that it's alleged to do something for games. Since I play an Elite clone (from 1981 or 1982), Sudoku (16x16), and Sid Meier's Civilisation from 1991 ... I'm wondering what effect a Rift would have on these?
Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"