As soon as you sign into Facebook on your Oculus Quest, Go, or Rift Facebook will be analyzing your behavior at the next level, watching your behavior on all the websites you visit, and effectively selling your data by giving your data away for free to its biggest advertisers or to it’s government friends.
I will back up this argument by citing these news sources about what Facebook does. It’s interesting to see the public becoming as disenchanted with Facebook as they are with Donald Trump.
Article by Micah Blumberg, Journalist, WebXR Developer, Researcher, Neurohacker
A MONTH ago I argued that Facebook was not selling your data. At least I could not see how. Now I understand how they are effectively selling your data and at the same time falsely claiming that they are not to deceive you.
How it works: Oculus is a Facebook product. If you sign into Facebook on Oculus you are letting Facebook “give” your VR behavior patterns to its friends who “buy” the most ads on Facebook.
Update: After reading comments I realized my story was missing some background here it is:
In January of 2019 Apple shutdown the ability of websites to collect orientation and other sensor data from phones. This incidentally impacted webxr which is why I know about it. Apple did this in part to protect users from being spied upon without their knowledge. In Oculus VR headsets the web exposes head tracking, and hand tracking data, and other sensor data about user activity, as well as a semantic context, and perhaps also environment data.
What Apple’s decision was about in more detail.
In summary it was about the new privacy issues created by this additional sensor data.
Combine that information with this story (below) and you can understand why exposing VR sensor data to a company like Facebook is a big deal.
“When Facebook cut off data access to its rivals, for example, it released public statements that it was protecting user privacy. And after it became public that Cambridge Analytica was siphoning off millions of people’s data through online quizzes, Facebook limited developer access to data.
“Despite those shifts, Facebook has still been sharing heaps of data with companies like Netflix, Amazon and Spotify.”
“Leaked docs show Facebook weaponized user data against competitors, with little regard for privacy
“In the past, Facebook executives including CEO Mark Zuckerberg regularly wielded user data as a tool to reward partners and smash rivals, according to some 4,000 pages of leaked emails, messages, and other documents spanning from 2011 to 2015.
“Amazon for instance got extended data access because it was not only spending money on ads but partnering with Facebook on the launch of its ill-fated Fire Phone, NBC News reported. Conversely, executives discussed cutting off data for a rival messaging app, MessageMe.”
“Mark Zuckerberg leveraged Facebook user data — maybe yours? — to crush rivals and aid allies, leaked documents show.
“Some 4,000 pages of internal Facebook documents from 2011 to 2015 leaked to reporters at NBC News illuminate the company’s shady approach to sharing and selling your personal user data, and how Facebook gives greater access to companies it considers friendly and aligned with its profit interests.”
“Mark Zuckerberg leveraged Facebook user data to fight rivals and help friends, leaked documents show”
“Though Facebook ultimately decided to not pursue that course of action, Zuckerberg’s willingness to entertain the idea led Facebook’s director of product, Doug Purdy, to describe him as “a master of leverage,” according to the report.
“The documents are from a California court case involving bikini-photo-finding app Six4Three, which let users find photos of their friends in bikinis and bathing suits by searching their “friends” on Facebook.
“The app acquired the files after it sued Facebook over the social network’s more restrictive privacy policies in 2015, which led Six4Three to shut down the Pikinis app.
“The lawsuit had been quietly progressing until recently when documents were seized by Britain’s Parliament in November ahead of a hearing looking into disinformation and “fake news.”
“They were then anonymously leaked to British journalist Duncan Campbell, who gave them to NBC.”
“Facebook operates essentially as a dictatorship.
“FACEBOOK SHAREHOLDER PROPOSAL, 2019"
https://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-hiltzik-mark-zuckerberg-facebook-20190416-story.html
“The woman who blew open the Cambridge Analytica scandal says Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey are ‘handmaidens to authoritarianism’”
“In all likelyhood it is Facebook’s intent to track the behavior of teens and children on their Oculus Quest product, only without Apple to stop them this time. On top of that Facebook lied about spying on teens. They lied about it. This proves that we can’t take Facebook at their word.”
I bet that you won’t see this news covered by any of the other VR news sources because they know Facebook retaliates and they all want to go to F8 Facebook’s big conference.
Oculus is a Facebook product. If you sign into Facebook on Oculus you are letting Facebook “give” your behavior patterns to its friends who “buy” the most ads on Facebook.
I think it’s an important topic of discussion to raise, because some people may not be thinking about how Facebook’s data collection begins takes on a new meaning once they are sending their VR behavior patterns into Facebook. Some people may not realize this and they maybe grateful for the opportunity to think about not logging into a social network from VR.
You have the option to not use Social Media from inside VR.
According to history recipients of your data include Amazon and Donald Trump.
Update added: The story laid out by various media sources in this article illustrates lies by Facebook, that Facebook made to wield your data, “giving” your data to its top ad purchasers (like Amazon), which is a story of deception and greed, a story of amorality, and bullying because Facebook like Trump works to disadvantage their rivals (while giving your data to their friends who are friends because they buy the most ads which is how Facebook sells your info while claiming otherwise) these are all things Trump has the reputation for doing, according to the media. So there are strong similarities between Facebook’s behavior and Trump’s behavior according to media sources.
If that was the only thing it might not be enough to link Facebook and Trump, but then there was this:
“Facebook executive shows support for Kavanaugh at hearing for Trump Supreme Court nominee”
Update added: The fact that Facebook executives are so close to Trump’s nominees, the fact that they want to hide their conservative colors from the public, the fact that their thinking and behavior strategies have so many similarities, all these facts add up, but maybe it takes dwelling on them a bit to see the big picture here. It points to Facebook wanting to sell their data to someone they wanted to be President, but needing a way to hide that sale, to disguise it, with the help of Cambridge Analytica.
Update added: Why should you care about Facebook collecting data on you via your VR headset? Because algorithms have already been shown to discriminate on the basis of gender and race.
“Critically, we observe significant skew in delivery along gender and racial lines for “real” ads for employment and housing opportunities despite neutral targeting parameters.”
