If Logged Into Facebook, Oculus VR Data Will Now Be Used For Ads (uploadvr.com) 36
"Facebook will now use information about your Oculus activity, like which apps you use, to help provide [...] more relevant content, including ads" -- assuming you've connected your Oculus ID to your Facebook account. UploadVR reports: The company is updating its privacy policy and rolling out new social VR features backed by your "Facebook identity" with the intention of "clarifying how Oculus data is shared with Facebook to inform ads when you log into Facebook on Oculus." "These changes won't affect third-party apps and games, and they won't affect your on-device data," according to the company. For years now, buyers of Facebook VR headsets needed an Oculus ID to operate the system that could be optionally connected to your "Facebook identity" -- in other words, you could connect the two accounts. More recently, to access certain features like concerts in Venues, Facebook started requiring the use of the Facebook account. According to the company's terms, this account "must ... use the same name that you use in everyday life."
With this most recent change "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," according to Facebook. But denying that connection may also make it difficult to connect with others using virtual reality on Oculus systems. [...] Facebook suggests that for those who log into the account it will target "relevant content" based around "Oculus activity" including "which apps you use" with examples given including "Oculus Events you might like to attend or ads for VR apps available on the Oculus Store." The company says this "won't affect your on-device data" which, based on our previous reporting, Facebook says is the location where "3D maps of your environment" are kept. "We don't collect and store images or 3D maps of your environment on our servers today -- images are not stored anywhere, and 3D maps are stored locally on the headset [for Quest] and on your local PC, where you have access to delete it [for Rift S]," a Facebook representative originally wrote in an email. Facebook also says the changes "won't affect third-party apps and games" and "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."
With this most recent change "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," according to Facebook. But denying that connection may also make it difficult to connect with others using virtual reality on Oculus systems. [...] Facebook suggests that for those who log into the account it will target "relevant content" based around "Oculus activity" including "which apps you use" with examples given including "Oculus Events you might like to attend or ads for VR apps available on the Oculus Store." The company says this "won't affect your on-device data" which, based on our previous reporting, Facebook says is the location where "3D maps of your environment" are kept. "We don't collect and store images or 3D maps of your environment on our servers today -- images are not stored anywhere, and 3D maps are stored locally on the headset [for Quest] and on your local PC, where you have access to delete it [for Rift S]," a Facebook representative originally wrote in an email. Facebook also says the changes "won't affect third-party apps and games" and "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."
Why does a helmet (Score:1)
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The games are just something to do between the ads.
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An ad company has to ad...
Do we get to vote on that?
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Sure. Just do so with that leather thing in your back pocket.
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The ads are the content, the new VR games are the bait.
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need to log into Facebook?
It doesn't. But Facebook has a universal login these days, so people use it across a lot of websites for better or (most likely) for worse.
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Even if he does. Some of the stories on /. are even still on topic, but after reading them the 10th time they start to become boring.
So does this.
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While a couple of his arguments fall apart (particularly the public video recording for obvious reasons), the rest of it is sound and companies are really becoming more and more abusive and treating the customers as the enemy.
It's like the frog in boiling water trope. Yes, the logic is flawed in that, but I'm going to pretend for a moment it's not. They've been slowly turning up the heat, while we all sit in the pot being cooked to death by more restrictions, more telemetry, more attempts to lock d
Wow I was going to buy one (Score:2)
I was cleaning space for a VR setup, before I jumped the gun and got one.
Well dodged that bullet
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Re: Wow I was going to buy one (Score:3)
I'll just not buy one
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I'll just not buy one
Like everyone else.
I am right in the target market for this product, but really can't see why I would want to own one.
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Or use the same email you use for Fb with the oculus store
Because even if they aren't xrefing those now, they will sooner or later
Though they totally are, even if they don't admit it
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Well if you have a Facebook account at this point, you have a problem already.
I still wouldn't buy anything owned by Zuck under any conditions.
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I have no intention of signing up for FaceBook, and I'm not going to inadvertently now.
As much as Carmack is awesome, FB? yeah, no.
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How about not getting an Oculus but a different VR system?
Obligatory Nolan Sorrento (Score:2)
"We can sell up to 80 percent of a user's visual field before inducing seizures!"
This is why I didn't link my Oculus account withFB (Score:5, Interesting)
You have two options when getting a Quest:
1. Setup an oculus account, link it directly to your facebook account
2. Setup an oculus account, link it to your email
I created a new email and linked my oculus account with that, forward the emails to a more regularly monitored email account.
It was always obvious that your oculus data would be cross referenced with your facebook account data, at least internally, at facebook. Of course. Why else would facebook wager $2 Billion (with a b) to buy the company and then funnel additional funds, taking a loss on the product up until this point? For the marketing dollars. If you own VR, you own the next generation of consoles, and can finally do what's never been done, fully integrate console user ids with social media IDs. With that kind of user data you can very specifically target specific types of users and charge more for those kinds of targeted ads.
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Welcome to the world of today.
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Option 0:
0. Don't waste money on a headache inducing fad that you won't use two years from now
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I wasn't a big Oculus fanboy until I got the Quest, the fact that it's battery powered and self contained makes a pretty wildly significant difference in use. I wasn't really sold on VR as a viable product until the self-contained Quest came along.
Re:This is why I didn't link my Oculus account wit (Score:5, Insightful)
Best option of all was the one I took: Find out Facebook bought Oculus a couple years ago. Automatically assume this "feature" was one of many objectionable ones that would result. Add Oculus to my "not a fucking chance" list of vendors. Quite happy with my Valve Index, as I was with the HTC Vive before it.
Get a vive (Score:1)
It actually works if you have a big head with huge IPD... unlike oculus.
My headset is covered in dust because watching movies on it kinda sucks and the games aren't all that great either. You can hack even generic headsets to work with oculus apps, unless something has changed recently.
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Yeah the Pimax can also work with Occulus (And Vive) , but holy crap its fiddly. Amazing headsets, absolutely garbage fire drivers
Just one more reason to be off Facebook (Score:2)
surprised! (Score:2)
i'm surprised, i would have thought they were already doing that, but they are just only starting now?
doesn't sound believable.