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Meta Accounts: A New Login for VR

oculus.com

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Re: Meta Accounts: A New Login for VR

#141

Post by FabHK »

SoftTalker wrote: post #120
ziddoap wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> so you think they are confident enough to link somebodies randomly created alias, let's say "InteretDude420" to a real name? After a certain amount of fingerprinting, absolutely. It's not as if they are solely relying on user-submitted information such as a handle to make that link. And if no link can be made right this second, they can just continue to collect data under "InteretDude420" until they reach a certain…

Yes, zip code/geo-location plus a few other points of personal data are often enough to identify an individual. Then tie that to a browser fingerprint and you can tie together all their "anonymous" screen names.

I read recently (or heard in a podcast; can't find the source lamentably) that almost all people can be uniquely identified by the top three locations they spend most time at.

Re: Meta Accounts: A New Login for VR

#142

Post by CharlesW »

jdminhbg wrote: post #115
CharlesW wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm of the opinion that the data they could slurp up from mining your VR usage is of limited use, because it won't meaningfully improve ad targeting. Facebook is going to get lots more data than they get from you on desktop and mobile. “…one of the things I’m really excited about for future versions is getting eye tracking and face tracking in.” — Mark Zuckerberg https://uploadvr.com/zuckerberg-eye-face-tracking-qu…

This quote seems to be about using face/eye tracking to improve the VR itself, not something about ads or data mining.

Yes, and there’s value to that. “Better avatars” is a central part of Zuck’s public sales pitch.

But the actual endgame is that Meta has been building a portfolio of patents that leverage eye and face tracking to better target you with ads and other content.

“The next patent really gets into it…It’s called ‘Techniques for emotion detection and content delivery’. This one is a straight up flowchart for capturing the user’s image via the camera to track your emotions when viewing different types of content. [Meta] could tie your emotional states when checking out videos, ads or baby pictures and serve up content in the future just by reading your initial state of emotion.”

https://www.forbes.com/sites/curtissilver/2017/06/08/how-fac...

Re: Meta Accounts: A New Login for VR

#143

Post by LordDragonfang »

superkuh wrote: post #82
marrone12 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What exactly did they "do" to oculus besides give them a ton of funding and try to bring them into the mainstream?

They broke the emerging VR software ecosystem into the open side which many companies supported and a Facebook only proprietary one they asserted ownership and control of. Before Facebook bought Oculus there was cooperation and native software interoptibility between Vive and Rift. Then they stopped supporting desktop head mounted displays for the most part and switched to building face mounted VR computers that happ…

>They broke the emerging VR software ecosystem into the open side which many companies supported and a Facebook only proprietary one

What? There used to be a bunch of different VR platforms, and only recently has the industry settled on a single open standard, OpenXR[1], and Facebook was (or at least claims to be[2]) one of the major contributors to that open standard.

There are a lot of things you can criticize Meta for doing with Oculus, but opposing open standards isn't one of them.

[1] https://www.khronos.org/openxr/

[2] https://developer.oculus.com/blog/openxr-for-oculus/

Re: Meta Accounts: A New Login for VR

#144

Post by marginalia_nu »

mortenjorck wrote: post #116
marginalia_nu wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How can they tell how an email address is European?

Because you told them while you were creating your Meta account, and because the credit card you entered matched what you told them.

Sure, but we are talking about shadow accounts, not Meta accounts.

Re: Meta Accounts: A New Login for VR

#147

Post by marrone12 »

superkuh wrote: post #82
marrone12 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What exactly did they "do" to oculus besides give them a ton of funding and try to bring them into the mainstream?

They broke the emerging VR software ecosystem into the open side which many companies supported and a Facebook only proprietary one they asserted ownership and control of. Before Facebook bought Oculus there was cooperation and native software interoptibility between Vive and Rift. Then they stopped supporting desktop head mounted displays for the most part and switched to building face mounted VR computers that happ…

The second point doesn't make sense at all. Consumers vastly prefer standalone VR, and it was always the future.

For the first point, I'll give you that they prefer playing on their own platform. But they haven't "broken" anything. While yes you do need a software layer, e.g. Revive, you can still play steam games on oculus and oculus games on an index. And you have no idea whether that would have happened anyway as one of these companies got bigger.

Google used to say "do no evil" and now they don't, and they didn't get acquired before they changed. These things just happen.

Re: Meta Accounts: A New Login for VR

#148

Post by ElectricalUnion »

lacker wrote: post #132
superkuh wrote: post #7

This is a bait and switch. There's no reason to believe that Facebook will remain benevolent in the future. They will switch back to requiring some thing they can use to collect and sell your personal data even if it's not called Facebook. That was the point of them buying Oculus. They never tried to make money on the hardware.

It's a bit pedantic, but Facebook does not sell your personal data. They use it to target advertising. And at this point, every large tech company does the same thing. Apple, Amazon, Google, Microsoft. They all make significant revenue from advertising and they all use data they collect from you to target ads. So, not that targeted advertising is so great, but it's looking like pretty much any hardware device from bi…

> It's a bit pedantic, but Facebook does not sell your personal data. They use it to target advertising.

But they also leak personal data. A lot.

At this point, I'm willing to believe that the other adtech-corporations are more likely to be interested and capable in maintaining your data out of the prying eyes (of competing adtech-corporations).

Re: Meta Accounts: A New Login for VR

#149

Post by ketralnis »

cableshaft wrote: post #113
lolinder wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The post was posted by a (edit: recently ex-) VP at Facebook, and the posted title, while strictly accurate, doesn't mention that there's a brand new account type that you need to have. I read this at first as "I can finally buy a VR headset and use it as regular hardware", not "FB is still going to track my usage, just under their new name". "Introducing Meta Accounts: A New Login for VR" is the actual title, and sh…

There's user accounts for almost every software business out there that has any form of online component. You have a user account on this very site. I don't get the complaint.

The complaint is that many people don't trust Facebook (or Meta or whatever they change their name to tomorrow) and don't want a _Facebook_ account. The title implies that their needs will be met: that they will be able to buy Oculus hardware without having to interact with Facebook's data-gathering. But that's a lie: they are just rebranding the name of the login system, not actually changing anything.

The title (currently "A Facebook account is no longer required to use Meta VR devices (oculus.com)" which is not the title of the article) is specifically written to get the attention of that Facebook-distrusting group and in that way is explicitly and I believe intentionally misleading.

Re: Meta Accounts: A New Login for VR

#150

Post by go_elmo »

jmull wrote: post #70

From Meta's point of view this doesn't change anything. Your activities and interests on your meta accounts will all be part of the same profile meta keeps on grin your Facebook activity, internet browsing, and anything else they can attach or infer a tracking identity from. Their "privacy" controls are outward facing - e.g., how your meta account is related to your Facebook profile outside meta, not inside. This rea…

Block third party cookies and youre good, no? Havent seen personalized ads in years and the only sites not working are the ones Im not using anyways.
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