This is a news article that encompasses the physical sciences (physics, oceanography, and climate science to name a few), mathematics, and scientific computing (statistics, computer modelling, data processing from observation platforms such as the satellites mentioned in TFA). Please review TFM of Slashdot: "News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters." This article clearly falls in the wheelhouse of both.
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.
The problem here is that this isn't a problem. You can't fix this because this is how the product and business model were designed. The goal in mind is to suck as much information out of the population as possible and to slice our social groups into manageable and manipulatable chunks so as to maximize ad revenues.
"I'm shocked, shocked to find that abuses of privacy on a global scale is going on here!"
This model is most definitely not in the best interest of fostering healthy societies and social constructs, despite how much the Zuck et al claim to be about 'connecting the world.' Expect much more news like this from Facebook in the near future unless they are forced to change.
Slashdot Mirror
This is a news article that encompasses the physical sciences (physics, oceanography, and climate science to name a few), mathematics, and scientific computing (statistics, computer modelling, data processing from observation platforms such as the satellites mentioned in TFA). Please review TFM of Slashdot: "News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters." This article clearly falls in the wheelhouse of both.
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.
The problem here is that this isn't a problem. You can't fix this because this is how the product and business model were designed. The goal in mind is to suck as much information out of the population as possible and to slice our social groups into manageable and manipulatable chunks so as to maximize ad revenues. "I'm shocked, shocked to find that abuses of privacy on a global scale is going on here!" This model is most definitely not in the best interest of fostering healthy societies and social constructs, despite how much the Zuck et al claim to be about 'connecting the world.' Expect much more news like this from Facebook in the near future unless they are forced to change.