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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

#171

Post by 4ec0755f5522 »

izzydata wrote: post #80
fardo wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facebook maintains “shadow profile” accounts for people who have not personally made an account [1], the answer to your question is “whatever information your friends and family exposed on your behalf and which is linkable to you”. [1] https://medium.com/@SpiderOak/facebook-shadow-profiles-a-pro...

so you think they are confident enough to link somebodies randomly created alias, let's say "InteretDude420" to a real name? What if opened a VR Arcade and owned 100 Oculus Quests and made 100 separate accounts?

Facebook allegedly buys transaction data (you know like banks and payment processors etc. sell). So they have a browser fingerprint for you via cookies (you know that like and share button on every page on the internet) or just plain JS fingerprinting.

Matching all that data to the real information you just ran through paypal or other merchant (some merchants sell this data directly) is something an intern can do on their first day.

I thought they denied maintaining shadow profiles though? There seems to be some people at FB who actually care about getting this stuff right and doing the right thing but economic forces at this point appear to be pushing most of the company in a very different direction.

Re: Meta Accounts: A New Login for VR

#173

Post by tmp_anon_22 »

neodymiumphish wrote: post #28
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.

I'm positive they will still correlate activity from your Meta account with your FB. One possible point of this is to keep Meta users with access to their purchased content while Facebook maintains their ability to block/restrict user access on the platform.

All Facebook needs is data that they can tie to a phone number or primary email. Geolocation and first name would be enough for that.

I think the real reason for requiring Facebook accounts was just padding user numbers and events for a quarterly report (likely for somebody's bonus to land).

Re: Meta Accounts: A New Login for VR

#174

Post by gpmcadam »

meta (heh): can’t view this page without accepting all cookies, including Facebook ad ones, which it says you can control on your cookie settings page (404 link) but if you don’t have a Facebook account you can’t access

Re: Meta Accounts: A New Login for VR

#175

Post by yayr »

janoc wrote: post #140
neodymiumphish wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm positive they will still correlate activity from your Meta account with your FB. One possible point of this is to keep Meta users with access to their purchased content while Facebook maintains their ability to block/restrict user access on the platform.

I think the reason is more prosaic. Oculus Quest is a complete nonstarter in business for many companies because Facebook-anything is simply a no-go. And they need to penetrate into this market because that's where the money is, not in subsidized headset retail. Now whether someone will buy this "no need for Facebook anymore but not really" shtick is another story.

with that reasoning they would need to allow Google or MS AD accounts.

Re: Meta Accounts: A New Login for VR

#176

Post by blendergeek »

georgeecollins wrote: post #37
markstos wrote: post #15

Instead, a Meta account is required. I see what you did there.

To be fair: You needed an Oculus account to use an Oculus, just like you need a Switch account or a Steam account. Hardware with a digital store requires an account. A Facebook account is much more restrictive than say a Steam account. Facebook tries to get you to use your real name for example. Who in the world wants to use their real name playing a video game?

You don't need a Steam account to use a SteamDeck, only to use the Steam store.

Re: Meta Accounts: A New Login for VR

#177

Post by ryandrake »

pegasus wrote: post #134
cableshaft wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 oculus is clearly a hardware, not a software product, so GP's point stands.

Yea, requiring an online account to use a head mounted display makes as much sense as requiring an online account to use a monitor.

Sure, require an account to do purchases through their online store, that makes sense. But why on earth do you need an account to use an unconnected piece of hardware? I don't need to log in to an account to use my monitor, mouse, keyboard, or joystick.

EDIT, answering my own question:

The only reason these accounts are required is that Facebook wants to pretend Oculus is not just the HMD but also the whole "ecosystem" including the store, their toxic social media properties, and their ridiculous metaverse. I don't buy into this fantasy of theirs, and will never buy another Oculus until they are treated as dumb displays.

Re: Meta Accounts: A New Login for VR

#179

Post by dqpb »

Patrol8394 wrote: post #56

I am super bearish on Meta: - why would anyone trust Meta/FB on anything they say or trust them with your data - FB became popular because it was easy to use, it was just about uploading and commenting on photos. I don't see any of my family members buying a VR device and connect in metaverse ... there is no way .. - I don't think people will ever use VR devices for the sole purpose of having meeting, video works jus…

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