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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

#581

Post by gabaix »

nolok wrote: post #475
ehsankia wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Was it just a verbal agreement or written in the contract though.

The one time facebook did that in a written way was with whatsapp and it made them lose in europe (germany specifically I think) where they had to cancel their plan to share data between the two entities.

Facebook executives openly lied to the European Commission, to get approval for the acquisition. 3 years later they were fined $120M, a slap on the wrist [1].

No wonder they keep making empty promises.

[1] https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_17_...

Re: Facebook account now required to login to Oculus devices

#583

Post by edgarvaldes »

mdorazio wrote: post #558
latenightcoding wrote: post #479

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It baffles me too. My Samsung smart tv started showing me ads in the control panel/home screen. I paid full price for it, why am I seeing ads. I wish I could return it, but the snakes waited until the return period was over.

In the case of the smart tv it's actually because you didn't really pay the full price of the tv. The manufacturer counts on the revenue from those ads to boost the tv profit margin to an acceptable level, otherwise they would have to charge you more for the tv initially. If you don't believe me, look up the price of a "commercial display" comparable to your tv. And before anyone asks, the majority of customers would…

>In the case of the smart tv it's actually because you didn't really pay the full price of the tv

How can the consumer know, if it is not disclosed?

And when every TV manufacturer is doing "ads in your smart TV", there is no incentive to not sell it at full price AND show you ads.

Re: Facebook account now required to login to Oculus devices

#584

Post by ooobit2 »

javajosh wrote: post #454
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…

>Have we really given up basic consumer rights that easily? Well, yes. I don't know if you've noticed, but short-term convenience trumps all other concerns. The market can't really deal with these issues, because they are too subtle and expensive for individuals to work out for themselves. We really do need collective action, by way of regulation, similar to how we recognized as a society that workplace safety laws w…

We're seeing this right now with Epic's Tim Sweeney suing Apple for its mandatory cut on all digital goods. Yet a large number of people, people who claim to be pro-99%, anti-technocracy, anti-corporatism, are shilling the rhetoric that "it's Apple's platform" and "Epic knew what the terms were."

Well, yes, but that's exactly what SV activists and social activists are claiming has to stop. It's absurd that these same people are willing to defend the iPhone/iOS/Apple Services pipeline of proprietary anticompetitive dependencies.

I hope Epic wins this case against Apple. It's a precedent that needs to be set for limiting anticompetitive business and manufactured monopolies. Nothing Apple has in its portfolio is absent a perfect substitute in the very same market Apple is selling their products. But Apple has used proprietary inputs as a gatekeeper for their revenue. No one should have to buy a $49 dongle to plug an HDMI cable into their iPhone when every Android/Windows/Linux-based device has built-in support within the device. And if someone tries to push a "Lightning" to HDMI cable, Apple detects and deliberately locks off device content.

Too many big, beloved logos are built on anti-free market tactics, both by lobbying policy and private act. The sheer volume of this that Steve Jobs did in his lifetime made it hard for me to feel anything when he died. I genuinely felt relieved that this tyrant in technology, a man whose every product idea was just enough of a change of someone else's existing work product, slapped with intentional proprietary inputs to limit competition within the Apple eco-system, was finally gone. And then Tim Cook sashay'd on in.

Re: Facebook account now required to login to Oculus devices

#586

Post by Aeolun »

wlesieutre wrote: post #67
eugeniub wrote: post #22

Well this is horrifying. I bought a Quest for a relative. He loves it, but he doesn't have a Facebook account, and has no interest in signing up. I have a Facebook account, but I don't use it, and I certainly don't want to connect my Oculus account. I guess we'll both have to sell our Quests. That means we'll lose all of our game purchases. I came to Oculus with eyes wide open knowing it was a Facebook company, but t…

If you make a Facebook account and never touch the Facebook aspect of it, is there any material difference between that and an Oculus account?

I do not like the idea that I need a social media account to use a VR headset, regardless of the realities of using the oculus account data still ending up with facebook.

Re: Facebook account now required to login to Oculus devices

#587

Post by cortesoft »

TT3351 wrote: post #478
jjaredsimpson wrote: post #450

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Actually you can't, because Facebook will lock your account for inauthentic behavior. Try making a fake account, and see how long you can hold on to it without being extorted for personal, identifiable information.

I set up a fake Facebook profile 10 years ago, because I needed a profile with no friends that I could use for testing some stuff at work. It is still alive and kicking; Facebook keeps sending it emails suggesting friends.

Re: Facebook account now required to login to Oculus devices

#588

Post by troydavis »

This seems to mean that Facebook's account review/policy process and lack of customer service - basically, that you're the product - now decides who can use Oculus.

A week ago, I tried to sign up for Facebook in order to buy some ads[1]. With nothing remarkable about the account or metadata[2], the first page I saw after the signup form was

> Your Account Has Been Disabled. You can't use Facebook because your account, or activity on it, didn't follow our Community Standards.

That page was shown immediately after the signup form. I jumped through their hoops of providing an SMS-able phone number, then a photo, and a few days later got this final result:

> Your Account Has Been Disabled. You can't use Facebook because your account, or activity on it, didn't follow our Community Standards. We have already reviewed this decision and it can't be reversed."

Again, there's no activity on the account because I never saw any FB pages, let alone used it. I'm not concerned - I cancelled my personal account back in 2013 and never looked back, and other than wanting to buy some public-service ads, I still have no interest in it. I sure would care if I had an Oculus, though.

[1]: Because Twitter prohibits or applies extra terms to many types of issue/advocacy ads, and while I applaud their approach, those of us running public-service campaigns get stuck in unpredictable policy enforcement.

[2]: Signing up from a residential Comcast US IP that I'm the only user/client on, using an email address at a domain I own, am the only user on, has been registered for 10+ years, etc.

Re: Facebook account now required to login to Oculus devices

#589

Post by Alupis »

klyrs wrote: post #557
shazow wrote: post #477

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just tried and failed: https://twitter.com/shazow/status/1295835462360338436 I used a realistic sounding name, I tried several email addresses that were rejected as blocked, eventually I landed on an email that worked and my account got immediately disabled. I'm sure I could eventually succeed, but I don't believe that it's fair to brush this off as something that anybody could do easily.

Your tweet indicates that you were stopped by the "government ID required" hoop. I've been there. I'm no graphics design wizard, but I foiled this by (1) taking a photograph of my actual government ID, (2) copying letters around to spell the name I'm known by, (3) applying some noise and blur filters (4) downsampling, and (5) redacting all PII except name & face. Compared to making an actual fake ID, I call this quit…

That is, admittedly, a lot of work, even if it does bypass this absurd requirement.

Re: Facebook account now required to login to Oculus devices

#590

Post by Finnucane »

atarian wrote: post #13

Palmer Luckey, the original creator had this to say over on /r/oculus: I am already getting heat from users and media outlets who say this policy change proves I was lying when I consistently said this wouldn't happen, or at least that it was a guarantee I wasn't in a position to make. I want to make clear that those promises were approved by Facebook in that moment and on an ongoing basis, and I really believed it w…

Practically every corporate acquisition in the history of ever goes something like: day 1: "Nothing will change." Six months later: "All you knew is gone."
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