How to Remain Private in XR

So you’re thinking of buying a surprisingly inexpensive XR headset from a notorious social networking company, but you worry about being tracked?

You are not crazy. But maybe you have some questions?

As you may know, the business model of social networks involves extracting your most personal information, your needs and emotional biases, and then using this information to target ads and keep you coming back. It’s no joke that you’re not the real customer here. Instead of paying directly for a service like Netflix, you’re paying indirectly, in the form of higher prices for the products you buy. The sellers spend that money to advertise right back at you and they try to spend it where it will get the most return on investment.

Nothing is free. And if you really want to maximize your personal freedom, the safest approach is to never have any social network accounts from so-called “free” websites (the second safest method is to delete your accounts now).

After all, it’s not that these companies know or in some sense sell our info that matters most to most people. It’s that they can use it to manipulate us to act in ways that serve them over us. That’s a clear and present danger to personal freedom. And we generally won’t even know when they do it.

But I know that concern falls flat for many of you. You get value from these social connections, you worry less about being manipulated, or maybe you just don’t see any viable alternatives. So you get habituated.