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Oculus 'Always On' Services and Privacy Policy May Be a Cause for Concern

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Re: Oculus 'Always On' Services and Privacy Policy May Be a Cause for Concern

#41

Post by pdkl95 »

nivla wrote: post #37
raverbashing wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least using Facebook is free Paying for the Ad Machine? This is ridiculous

Well to be fair, you are not paying to use Win 10 and also its a free upgrade. On the bright side, unlike FB, you can actually install 3rd party apps and setup firewall to gain that privacy back.

> install 3rd party apps and setup firewall to gain that privacy back.

Yet you're still paying for Win 10 with either money or market share, thus signaling your acceptance of that spyware. MS will continue adding exploitative features until it starts to hurt the only things they care about: revenue or market share.

Re: Oculus 'Always On' Services and Privacy Policy May Be a Cause for Concern

#42

Post by oxide »

jimrandomh wrote: post #20

Can we wait until they actually do or talk about doing something bad before making a stink about them doing bad things? This is kind of jumping at phantoms, and doing that too much will mean losing the ability to do it for real. Here's what's going on. OVRServer_x64 is, conceptually, a device-driver component for Oculus. It does things like handle the orientation sensor input and controls which app appears on the Ocu…

then why is it phoning home? it's not normal for a driver to call home, is it?

>None of the current titles in the Oculus store have in-game advertising.

yet. you forgot the word yet.

Re: Oculus 'Always On' Services and Privacy Policy May Be a Cause for Concern

#43

Post by pdkl95 »

wilg wrote: post #40
Sir_Substance wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>because the software infrastructure for measuring that doesn't exist (though I suppose someone could write it); What the hell are you talking about? The endermen in minecraft change behavior based on whether you are looking at them or not, and minecraft has hardly a bastion of bleeding edge game engine technology. The difference between making an enderman attack if you look at it for more then 2 seconds and firing a…

If the software infrastructure does exist in Minecraft as you say, why isn't anyone mad about it potentially doing exactly what you describe with the actual product placements actually present in Minecraft? ( https://store.xbox.com/en-US/Xbox-One/dlc/Minecraft-Xbox-One... ) The reason nobody is mad is because there is no evidence anything shady is going on there. Just like in this case with Oculus. It's possible for…

> regularly sends updates back to Facebook’s servers.

That IS evidence of something shady going on. A display device does not need to send data over the network. This is already spyware.

And no, the endermen in Minecraft do not send data back to Mojang when they detect you looking at them. That was obviously a an example of how someone could exploit head tracking data; it would still require exchanging data with Facebook... which the article claims OVRServer_x64.exe does.

Re: Oculus 'Always On' Services and Privacy Policy May Be a Cause for Concern

#44

Post by sudojudo »

nitrogen wrote: post #33
onewaystreet wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not a mild example when the truth is that they are collecting basic usage data for app recommendation and promotion just like everyone else does.

No, not everyone else does. That's the worst excuse ever. If I buy a new monitor it's not telling Asus or Dell or HP what apps I'm using or what I look at for how long.

Thank you. onewaystreet touched on something that's quite bothersome to many of us: End-user apathy via argumentum ad populum. Using (or buying) adware, malware, and spyware is not normal, and everyone isn't doing it.

When that ugliness rears its head, people need reminded that it's not normal, it's abusive. These companies aren't poor startups trying to make ends meet, they're corporate empires who are exploiting their users in every way possible.

Apologies for being preachy, this topic really gets under my skin.

Re: Oculus 'Always On' Services and Privacy Policy May Be a Cause for Concern

#46

Post by ginko »

karpathy wrote: post #25
Sir_Substance wrote: post #8

I just wanted to buy a computer monitor for my face. I'm paying you $600, can't I just have that? :(

Might be easiest to think of your privacy as a currency similar to $. The real cost is 800. They can offer you $600 and 200 in privacy, or they could offer you $800, which people would throw a fit over and not buy. This is also not entirely accurate because the raw price is a one-time purchase, while privacy is hard to upper bound and can even become more valuable later on. Facebook operates on this extreme: it's com…

The problem is that they _don't_ offer me the $800 option.

Re: Oculus 'Always On' Services and Privacy Policy May Be a Cause for Concern

#47

Post by nivla »

pdkl95 wrote: post #41
nivla wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well to be fair, you are not paying to use Win 10 and also its a free upgrade. On the bright side, unlike FB, you can actually install 3rd party apps and setup firewall to gain that privacy back.

> install 3rd party apps and setup firewall to gain that privacy back. Yet you're still paying for Win 10 with either money or market share, thus signaling your acceptance of that spyware. MS will continue adding exploitative features until it starts to hurt the only things they care about: revenue or market share.

You are also paying for the Oculus hardware while having no recourse to privacy even if you wanted. I am not saying Windows 10 doesn't have privacy issues, but when compared to Facebook's approach, it is far better.

Re: Oculus 'Always On' Services and Privacy Policy May Be a Cause for Concern

#48

Post by Sir_Substance »

ginko wrote: post #46
karpathy wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Might be easiest to think of your privacy as a currency similar to $. The real cost is 800. They can offer you $600 and 200 in privacy, or they could offer you $800, which people would throw a fit over and not buy. This is also not entirely accurate because the raw price is a one-time purchase, while privacy is hard to upper bound and can even become more valuable later on. Facebook operates on this extreme: it's com…

The problem is that they _don't_ offer me the $800 option.

I'd pay that $800.

Re: Oculus 'Always On' Services and Privacy Policy May Be a Cause for Concern

#49

Post by cududa »

nitrogen wrote: post #33
onewaystreet wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not a mild example when the truth is that they are collecting basic usage data for app recommendation and promotion just like everyone else does.

No, not everyone else does. That's the worst excuse ever. If I buy a new monitor it's not telling Asus or Dell or HP what apps I'm using or what I look at for how long.

No but it tells Microsoft that, or Apple. And they've been collecting data like that since XP. You're just being an alarmist.

I for one don't really care if VR ads are tracking information like that, I kinda figured it was a given. In game ads on consoles have existed for 10+ Years, and guess what? Tracking how long the ad is on the screen was already included.

Re: Oculus 'Always On' Services and Privacy Policy May Be a Cause for Concern

#50

Post by nitrogen »

cududa wrote: post #49
nitrogen wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, not everyone else does. That's the worst excuse ever. If I buy a new monitor it's not telling Asus or Dell or HP what apps I'm using or what I look at for how long.

No but it tells Microsoft that, or Apple. And they've been collecting data like that since XP. You're just being an alarmist. I for one don't really care if VR ads are tracking information like that, I kinda figured it was a given. In game ads on consoles have existed for 10+ Years, and guess what? Tracking how long the ad is on the screen was already included.

This is supposed to be a dumb peripheral, so users can decide whether to accept psychological analysis and manipulation.
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