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How Much VR User Data Is Oculus Giving To Facebook? (theverge.com)
Facebook owns many other apps and services, including the Oculus virtual-reality platform, which collects incredibly detailed information about where users are looking and how they're moving. Since most of the discussion about how Facebook handles user information is focused on the social network itself, The Verge's Adi Robertson looks into the link between Facebook and Oculus: A VR platform like Oculus offers lots of data points that could be turned into a detailed user profile. Facebook already records a "heatmap" of viewer data for 360-degree videos, for instance, flagging which parts of a video people find most interesting. If it decided to track VR users at a more detailed level, it could do something like track overall movement patterns with hand controllers, then guess whether someone is sick or tired on a particular day. Oculus imagines people using its headsets the way they use phones and computers today, which would let it track all kinds of private communications. The Oculus privacy policy has a blanket clause that lets it share and receive information from Facebook and Facebook-owned services. So far, the company claims that it exercises this option in very limited ways, and none of them involve giving data to Facebook advertisers. "Oculus does not share people's data with Facebook for third-party advertising," a spokesperson tells The Verge.
Oculus says there are some types of data it either doesn't share or doesn't retain at all. The platform collects physical information like height to calibrate VR experiences, but apparently, it doesn't share any of it with Facebook. It stores posts that are made on the Oculus forums, but not voice communications between users in VR, although it may retain records of connections between them. The company also offers a few examples of when it would share data with Facebook or vice versa. Most obviously, if you're using a Facebook-created VR app like Spaces, Facebook gets information about what you're doing there, much in the same way that any third-party app developer would. You can optionally link your Facebook account to your Oculus ID, in which case, Oculus will use your Facebook interests to suggest specific apps or games. If you've linked the accounts, any friend you add on Facebook will also become your friend on Oculus, if they're on the platform. Oculus does, however, share data between the two services to fight certain kinds of banned activity. "If we find someone using their account to send spam on one service, we can disable all of their accounts," an Oculus spokesperson says. "Similarly, if there's 'strange activity' on a specific Oculus account, they can share the IP address it's coming from with Facebook," writes Robertson. "The biggest problem is that there's nothing stopping Facebook and Oculus from choosing to share more data in the future."
Oculus says there are some types of data it either doesn't share or doesn't retain at all. The platform collects physical information like height to calibrate VR experiences, but apparently, it doesn't share any of it with Facebook. It stores posts that are made on the Oculus forums, but not voice communications between users in VR, although it may retain records of connections between them. The company also offers a few examples of when it would share data with Facebook or vice versa. Most obviously, if you're using a Facebook-created VR app like Spaces, Facebook gets information about what you're doing there, much in the same way that any third-party app developer would. You can optionally link your Facebook account to your Oculus ID, in which case, Oculus will use your Facebook interests to suggest specific apps or games. If you've linked the accounts, any friend you add on Facebook will also become your friend on Oculus, if they're on the platform. Oculus does, however, share data between the two services to fight certain kinds of banned activity. "If we find someone using their account to send spam on one service, we can disable all of their accounts," an Oculus spokesperson says. "Similarly, if there's 'strange activity' on a specific Oculus account, they can share the IP address it's coming from with Facebook," writes Robertson. "The biggest problem is that there's nothing stopping Facebook and Oculus from choosing to share more data in the future."
Why?
When I was making the purchasing decision I looked at both from HTC and from Oculus. I chose HTC because it isn't owned by Facebook
Looks like I did make a wise choice
"Oculus does not share people's data with Facebook for third-party advertising,"
Let's count the ways this sentence can be technically true:
a) Oculus does not share people's data (unlikely)
b) Oculus shares people's data but not with Facebook (violates their privacy policy)
c) Oculus shares data with Facebook but not for advertising
d) Oculus shares data with Facebook for advertising but it is not used with third-parties
e) Oculus does not share data with Facebook for advertising with third-parties (as stated)
You can really stop reading a privacy article when it lists "stor[ing] posts that are made on the Oculus forums". Better get off /. until it goes full P2P. Everything listed here sounds like anonymous metrics used for product development or spam prevention. A complete non-story.
There's at least one VR experience that records heatmaps of what parts of the environment you look at and for how long, and sends those to the developer (although they're upfront about this, for the app I know of). Soon, VR headsets will have eye-tracking tech built in that tracks not just what is visible in your entire field of view, or even the center of this field of view, but what your eyes are pointing at. There are various benefits to this tech, but also latent worry that it can be abused for marketing reasons. Marketers have already used eye-tracking with normal 2d screens to tell what parts of their advertisements that viewers look at, or to find out how many notice product placement. It gets worse when you consider that marketers (or anyone else who you might not want passing judgement on you) find out what your gaze tends to linger on, and assume that means you like/want that thing. Who wants to get marked as gay in a database because their female friend played a VR game with your headset/PC, and was staring at the guys in it? Or worse, if you ARE gay but still in the closet. Word seems to be that VR eye tracking will remain confidential information for reasons like this, but it'll be difficult to control in VR social apps where gaze is sent over the internet to be seen by others (since the possibility of eye contact is arguably a benefit of the tech).
Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
Oculus records all apps run (so Facebook knows if you're running "Honey Select"). It may also record the names of all video files. This is why I've never looked at anything sexy on Oculus. It's really really wrong of them to record that stuff
Same with Whatsapp and everything else they own.
The question may as well be rhetorical.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
All of it.
on facebook?
https://slashdot.org/comments....
(How do you "PM" someone on Slashdot?) Why are nerds so naively enthusiastic about nonsense, BTW?
You should assume everything collectable is being collected. And as you say, at any point in the future the company could start sharing it with anyone, they could get hacked, or they could get bought out by anyone who will then control the information (like Microsoft buying LinkedIn and Skype). If any of that concerns you then you shouldn't use their services.
For something like AR, you should assume they are tracking everything in your house. Any product it can see. Even the floor plans. VR is tracking all that too if it's recording your surroundings to determine how you move your head.
Duh.
Next question?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
All of it and then some. Next question?
https://www.tobiipro.com/field...
They think that Oculus GO will make more than one billion people join the VR society, and they think they are going to make money on games and apps. I am going to buy Oculus GO ONLY for porn.
No money from me for apps and games.
I dont think that I am alone in this.
doh which fuckwits didn't understand that facebook buying oclueless was going to turn it to shit, all because lucky was a greedy fuck.
any product sold by facefuck will be fucking data raping you, who the fuck doesn't understand this, are you all fucking asleep at the wheel.
All: because occulus is part of fb so what occulus has fb has
None: because occulus is part of fb, thus fb already has it. Since you can not give to yourself what you already have, occulus can/is not/ GIVING anything to fb.
Why not, when the users are the merchandise?
Sent as ripples into the electromagnetic field. No single photon has been harmed in the process.
If I bought a piece of hardware, why would I need an account?
That applies to software too.
User looked up 2x, down 2x, left 2x, right 2x, point A, point B.
What do you do with that? Advertise unlock codes?
Given Facebook's horrible track record when it comes to privacy, surveillance, and the public good, we should all be very alarmed by the prospect of an unregulated Facebook with VR technology penetrating our homes. They already have a team of psychologists, behavior experts, and academics helping to refine their products to be as addictive and lucrative as possible. What happens when they start getting unfettered access to our biodata? We betray our thoughts and feelings with a variety of subconscious or semi-conscious movements: pupil dilation, hand gestures, slight changes in posture, imperceptible changes in respiration, etc. When Facebook starts getting this data and combines it with the extensive dataset they already have on all of us, they will effectively be able to read our thoughts and exploit it for profit by selling this information to the highest bidders.
Oculus says there are some types of data it either doesn’t share or doesn’t retain at all. The platform collects physical information like height to calibrate VR experiences, but apparently, it doesn’t share any of it with Facebook.
Really? And how long will that last? TFA already says there's nothing stopping them from sharing all this information. All it takes is a majority vote of one to change this policy.
As intimate as VR surveillance seems, it’s still (as far as we know) not nearly as invasive or all-encompassing as Facebook’s app and web surveillance.
But it will become much worse.
if you ARE gay but still in the closet. Word seems to be that VR eye tracking will remain confidential information for reasons like this, but it'll be difficult to control in VR social apps where gaze is sent over the internet to be seen by others (since the possibility of eye contact is arguably a benefit of the tech).
I was working for a company that did eye tracking computer input for disabled persons when this question came up: is it possible to tell if a person is gay by analyzing their eye movements?
The theory was that the pupil dilates when a man views a naked woman, would the same happen when a gay man views a naked man?
A literature search turned up an experiment (that I can't find at the moment) where this theory was tested on prison inmates who were definitively categorized as gay or straight based on their behaviour outside of prison, using eye tracking equipment available at the time.
This was back in the years when gay was illegal. People were looking for a way to test for sexual orientation. (1950s or 60's maybe?)
The study conclusion was that this does NOT work at all. IIRC, the results were so close to random that one couldn't even say that the results were inconclusive.
I looked through the experimental procedure and couldn't find any obvious bias or flaw, so I expect this is a strong and reproducible [non] result.
Apparently the pupil dilates for all sorts of reasons, including when you see any kind of threat. A naked man is seen as a threat by a non-gay person, and other confounding factors come into play such as general interest, noticing some aspect of the image that is strange or unusual to the individual.
There are privacy aspects to eye tracking, but being outed as gay is probably not one of them.
...you'll get fleas.
I find it interesting (well, not really) how Zuck was all about how bad they were, or how terrible it was that all of that data was "used" in the 2016 election, but SAID NOTHING about willingly giving it to the Obama campaign for their use. Hypocrite.
Fuck the Zuck! Zuck the suck! Fuck the Zuck! Zuck sucks ducks!
Occulus VR has no offline mode, which means there is absolutely no way to opt-out from their massive data collection tools. Once again, you are the product. Everything you do will be sent to Facebook, and they will sell it and make money.
Mark Zuckerberg now knows what VR porn I watch! Come to think of it, Zuckerberg must have an awesome porn collection himself!
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Since Occulus is run by Facebook, they could tie your VR account to your Facebook account, and exploit your personal data even more. All of the this would be behind the scenes, so you wouldn't know what they were doing with it.