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Facebook account now required to login to Oculus devices

oculus.com

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Re: Facebook account now required to login to Oculus devices

#441

Post by jayd16 »

ggreer wrote: post #296
umvi wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But did Facebook add any value (i.e. engineering money/hours) to improve the device? What you've listed are all negatives, but there have to be at least a few positives to come out of it.

Without Facebook's capital and Zuckerberg's commitment to VR, I doubt the Quest would exist. That project was announced in 2016 and was likely in development for a couple of years before that. Still it took until mid-2019 to be released to the public. IIRC, Carmack said that development on the Go was started after the Quest, yet the Go went to market a year sooner. I can only imagine what kind of hell it was to get a…

Lenovo did it before the Go released (or about the same). It was kind of gimped because they went with the Daydream controller instead of full controllers but the headset itself was roomscale VR. It was also bigger and not as comfortable but worked on a previous gen SOC to the Quest. Check out the Lenovo Mirage Solo.

Re: Facebook account now required to login to Oculus devices

#442

Post by JMTQp8lwXL »

xg15 wrote: post #386

This is something that still completely baffles me about the "IoT"/"smart devices"/"connected devices"/"whatever you want to call it" space. If someone advertised a device as capable of doing X without it in fact being able to do X, they'd be liable for false advertising. If someone sold you a device, then took it back or destroyed it, they'd be liable for theft or destruction of property. Nevertheless, if someone se…

Consumer protection laws generally lag behind these problems, so it might be premature to say we've given up. We have to know the problem exists, and then we have to go through the (slow) legislative process.

Re: Facebook account now required to login to Oculus devices

#443

Post by CamperBob2 »

stinky613 wrote: post #337
TedShiller wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just make a fake FB account exclusively for this purpose. If you're forced to use a FB account at least don't link it to your actual profile. I have a separate fake FB account for every service that requires FB.

I tried doing that just moments ago and it wouldn't let me proceed without providing a phone number.

Fine, they can have the number of the burner phone that spends its time in my desk drawer with a dead battery, and is used for nothing but jumping through privacy-invading hoops.

Re: Facebook account now required to login to Oculus devices

#444

Post by amelius »

xg15 wrote: post #386

This is something that still completely baffles me about the "IoT"/"smart devices"/"connected devices"/"whatever you want to call it" space. If someone advertised a device as capable of doing X without it in fact being able to do X, they'd be liable for false advertising. If someone sold you a device, then took it back or destroyed it, they'd be liable for theft or destruction of property. Nevertheless, if someone se…

I think the problem is that the "masses" would still buy the Oculus product as if nothing was wrong with it. From there, it's pretty difficult to convince people (e.g. a regulator or a judge) that your item is of no use to you anymore.

Re: Facebook account now required to login to Oculus devices

#445

Post by TT3351 »

ccktlmazeltov wrote: post #394
AlexandrB wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exhibit n + 1 on why when you're acquired you're not in a position to promise anything to anyone despite any assurances from the acquirer. Or, from the consumer's side, why those promises should carry no weight.

is it such a big deal to create a fb account though? Can't you just use a fake name if you don't care about having a fb account?

fwiw, facebook has gotten upset with me when i've tried this exact thing, usually demanding a phone number or email, and refusing contact info i've already provided for other sock accounts. sometimes they'll lock my socks for not acting "human" (never posting anything, no profile picture, etc). just gives me an excuse to care less about facebook in all honesty

Re: Facebook account now required to login to Oculus devices

#446

Post by ForHackernews »

ccktlmazeltov wrote: post #394
AlexandrB wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exhibit n + 1 on why when you're acquired you're not in a position to promise anything to anyone despite any assurances from the acquirer. Or, from the consumer's side, why those promises should carry no weight.

is it such a big deal to create a fb account though? Can't you just use a fake name if you don't care about having a fb account?

In short, no. Facebook has gotten very good at catching and deleting "fake" accounts. Back in the day, I worked on an application that used Facebook's Graph API and I needed to create some bogus accounts for testing, but they were consistently blocked within days.

Using some combination of behaviour analysis, flagging new and/or cookie-less browsers, and (I suspect) human review FB have gone to great lengths to try and assure their customers that all humans have one and only one account under their true legal name and biographical details.

Re: Facebook account now required to login to Oculus devices

#447

Post by jacquesm »

MereInterest wrote: post #392
jacquesm wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facebook and everything associated with it is doing everything they can to be and remain GDPR compliant. Facebook has already been fined under the GDPR so it looks like that enforcement is working.

Wait, wait, wait a minute. In the same comment, you are claiming that Facebook is GDPR compliant, and that Facebook was fined for violating the GDPR. It sure seems like there is a major contradiction between those two.

Errm. No. In the same comment I am claiming that Facebook has already received a warning fine and that thus they stand to lose a lot if they are found to be in violation. I am not saying they are GDPR compliant because I can not know that with 100% certainty, but I'm sure they are doing what they can to not cross that line knowingly.

Facebook, Google, Apple & Microsoft are arguably the companies that stand the most to lose from GDPR enforcement, you can bet that they are well aware of this.

Re: Facebook account now required to login to Oculus devices

#448

Post by bluntfang »

kelnos wrote: post #365
codezero wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure this just changes which pipe usage data goes down, but this means Facebook directly gets to use your VR usage/purchases to market to you, and they will follow you around the web, because they know. I think that's the main reason folks generally dislike FB connect in the first place, but I don't want to speak for everyone :)

How is that different from an Oculus account, though? FB could keep the accounts separate but still funnel data in from Oculus to FB (as I'm sure they'd already been doing). If you create a throwaway FB account just for your Oculus device, the only material difference is which DB the entry is in.

when you sign up to facebook i bet their ToS is much different than Oculus'

Re: Facebook account now required to login to Oculus devices

#449

Post by ryanSrich »

xlii wrote: post #438
ryanSrich wrote: post #396

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wondering if creating burning accounts for everything would prevent any tracking. Basically - create burner gmail - create burner oculus name/account - create burner Facebook account - always use a VPN It seems like you could completely remain anonymous and provide Facebook with data they could never correlate to a real person.

Did you try to make a burner Facebook account? I tried doing this since my client needed something to be verified through FB and I don't have an account. After initial login I was asked to verify myself by either providing ID (sic!) or a phone number. Well, seems that after 2023 I'll just trash my Quest.

Whoa really? I deleted my Facebook in 2014, so I had no idea they actually did ID verification. If this is the case I guess you could spin up a burner number on Twilio, but this seems like a lot of work to go through. I have a Quest and will likely try these steps, but no way will I ever give Facebook my real identity.

Re: Facebook account now required to login to Oculus devices

#450

Post by jjaredsimpson »

achr2 wrote: post #434
ccktlmazeltov wrote: post #398

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You need internet to download games to your oculus quest, so it makes sense to have an account to keep track of what games you own no? I still don't understand what people have against this change. You needed an oculus account prior to this, now it's a facebook account, what's the big deal?

Really? I have never and will never have a facebook account, so this expensive device is now a paper weight..

Kinda absurd. You can setup a one time email, and one time facebook if you really want to segregate.

Sure you win on principle, but that's just the same as losing.

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