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Oculess – Removes account requirements and telemetry from Oculus Quest devices

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Re: Oculess – Removes account requirements and telemetry from Oculus Quest devices

#91

Post by m4rtink »

paranoidrobot wrote: post #53
akerl_ wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is it desirable for Congress to make laws limiting how electronics manufacturers can design their electronics? If Facebook wants to make a VR headset that requires that you upload a monthly video of you doing the chicken dance, just don’t buy their product. Attempting to use government to make private entities build the kinds of technology you like is a pretty heavy hammer to drop on individual freedoms.

> just don’t buy their product. That works in theory, but in practice when all the products from all the vendors work that way, you no longer have a choice. Plenty of examples like that - Try buying a TV that's not a "smart" TV nowdays, you basically can't. If you want a good quality picture, then it's also coming with telemetry and in many cases advertisements, too.

Not to mention big companies buying out all the small ones and shutting them down or perverting their products. Facebook and Oculus beinjg a perfect example, with added bad taste due to Oculus being propped by a successful kickstarter campaign, only to be sold for billions soon after to Facebook.

Another less known example could be Kolor, the maker of Autopano Giga (IMHO the best panorama creation tool so far) being gobbled by GoPro, likely for the talent, then shut down without replacement.

Re: Oculess – Removes account requirements and telemetry from Oculus Quest devices

#92

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

dylan604 wrote: post #31
SamuelAdams wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Docking stations and printers too. Here’s a recent HP printer that requires an account. https://reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/pwrgb1/buyer_beware_s...

Thanks. I don't typically read reddit, so I had not seen this. Starting to contemplate getting a new inkjet for the home office. I now have something else to keep in mind during the researching. This plus all of the ink jet forensic marking, I'm leaning towards the extra cost for color laser instead, and definitely not an HP.

Color lasers also have yellow tracking dots. You're only safe with a B&W laser or a 20+ year old color printer.

Re: Oculess – Removes account requirements and telemetry from Oculus Quest devices

#93

Post by ipaddr »

sgregnt wrote: post #90
rhacker wrote: post #15

Facebook keeps asking Congress to make laws. How about this one: Peripherals, including mice, monitors, keyboards, VR headsets or any other device used to process input or output from a computer, may NOT be connected to any cloud service with an account. Any such cloud connections MUST be for software updates only and software updates MUST be capable of permanent opt-out without any loss of usage. I mean I grew up wi…

If for some reason,now or in the future, I prefer my peripherals to be connected to cloud. Your law deprives me of this freedom. Just a thought.

There is a balance to achieve. It might be better than facebook forcing a cloud account on everyone.

Re: Oculess – Removes account requirements and telemetry from Oculus Quest devices

#94

Post by jtsuken »

akerl_ wrote: post #36
rhacker wrote: post #15

Facebook keeps asking Congress to make laws. How about this one: Peripherals, including mice, monitors, keyboards, VR headsets or any other device used to process input or output from a computer, may NOT be connected to any cloud service with an account. Any such cloud connections MUST be for software updates only and software updates MUST be capable of permanent opt-out without any loss of usage. I mean I grew up wi…

Why is it desirable for Congress to make laws limiting how electronics manufacturers can design their electronics? If Facebook wants to make a VR headset that requires that you upload a monthly video of you doing the chicken dance, just don’t buy their product. Attempting to use government to make private entities build the kinds of technology you like is a pretty heavy hammer to drop on individual freedoms.

It is desirable for any country to have laws that limit the ways how legal or government entities collect data.

Some of the strictest privacy laws existed in Germany for a reason, because the country new what an SS or a Stasi would do with the data once it gets its hands on it.

Some of the laxest privacy laws are in the US, the country whose businesses supplied the SS[1] and nowadays the CCP[2] with surveillance technology to facilitate genocide.

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_and_the_Holocaust

[2]https://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/us-tech-products-080...

Re: Oculess – Removes account requirements and telemetry from Oculus Quest devices

#95

Post by sgregnt »

malermeister wrote: post #66
akerl_ wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is it desirable for Congress to make laws limiting how electronics manufacturers can design their electronics? If Facebook wants to make a VR headset that requires that you upload a monthly video of you doing the chicken dance, just don’t buy their product. Attempting to use government to make private entities build the kinds of technology you like is a pretty heavy hammer to drop on individual freedoms.

Because government power is not the only power capable of suppressing individual freedoms. Corporate power is too and we need the government to keep it in check. Case in point, Facebook trying to restrict how you use hardware you own.

The example with facebook is quite different from Gov. Your interaction with facebook is 100% voluntarily, you don't like facebook then you can say bye! With the government you have no room for flexibility.

Re: Oculess – Removes account requirements and telemetry from Oculus Quest devices

#96

Post by [deleted] »

rhacker wrote: post #15

Facebook keeps asking Congress to make laws. How about this one: Peripherals, including mice, monitors, keyboards, VR headsets or any other device used to process input or output from a computer, may NOT be connected to any cloud service with an account. Any such cloud connections MUST be for software updates only and software updates MUST be capable of permanent opt-out without any loss of usage. I mean I grew up wi…

[deleted]

Re: Oculess – Removes account requirements and telemetry from Oculus Quest devices

#97

Post by Apocryphon »

akerl_ wrote: post #76
bloqs wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was said about phones 10 years ago, and electricity 100 years before that.

I was being flippant in my comment above, but just to be clear: I think regulating business models for cell phones is just as bad an idea. Electrical service has limitations around things like termination of service / fair pricing / safety, but we don’t mandate how they design their software and servers.

What about their comment on the lack of non-smart TVs?

Re: Oculess – Removes account requirements and telemetry from Oculus Quest devices

#98

Post by ipaddr »

akerl_ wrote: post #36
rhacker wrote: post #15

Facebook keeps asking Congress to make laws. How about this one: Peripherals, including mice, monitors, keyboards, VR headsets or any other device used to process input or output from a computer, may NOT be connected to any cloud service with an account. Any such cloud connections MUST be for software updates only and software updates MUST be capable of permanent opt-out without any loss of usage. I mean I grew up wi…

Why is it desirable for Congress to make laws limiting how electronics manufacturers can design their electronics? If Facebook wants to make a VR headset that requires that you upload a monthly video of you doing the chicken dance, just don’t buy their product. Attempting to use government to make private entities build the kinds of technology you like is a pretty heavy hammer to drop on individual freedoms.

Your freedom stops when you decide not to make your own oculus and use the common market. Using that market you are governed by all kind of rules like safety around food, lemon laws around purchases, laws that protect against predatory practices like bait and switch.

Re: Oculess – Removes account requirements and telemetry from Oculus Quest devices

#99

Post by hobs »

akerl_ wrote: post #79
malermeister wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just because they aren't secretive about it doesn't mean it's an okay thing to do. Doing a bad thing out in the open might make it shameless, but it doesn't make it acceptable.

I’m saying it’s not clear to me why it’s a bad thing. It’s clear that you want them to design a different VR headset, but I wish IKEA made a different depth Kallax shelf and yet I’m not looking to make it a legal requirement.

Designing things around safety is something IKEA already has to do, and regulations about materials, heights of products, etc all play into that.

The IKEA bookshelf doesn't violate your privacy nor have an always on connection to a much more powerful entity always looking to make another buck.

The IKEA bookshelf isn't an avenue for your attention and your time - whereas things like gambling (considered addictive and regulated by almost everyone) are - and we regulate them heavily.

Why would Facebook with its billions be exempt from regulation? It's not something we "want" - its to make their product basically useful without the IKEA subscription service to make sure your shelf doesn't fall apart every month.

Re: Oculess – Removes account requirements and telemetry from Oculus Quest devices

#100

Post by Apocryphon »

akerl_ wrote: post #58
rhacker wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why is it desirable for Congress Humans are dumb and they buy it, and it sets the precedent. We have to make laws sometimes. You can barely even buy a TV without smart features now and yet everyone that knows about such features that don't want them still HAVE to buy them if they want a gd tv. Should we just make it legal for oil companies to have no consequences for oil spills because it doesn't really affect much…

Maybe they’re not dumb and they’re making their own choices differently than you make yours. Oil spills harm the environment. We regulate them because the ocean can’t just choose to not receive the oil, not out of a desire to make sure we can keep eating fish. EDIT: To say the thing out loud: I buy smart TVs on purpose, and I’d like to think I’m a smart person who understands the technology involved. Is the case you’…

Ed Snowden might

https://mashable.com/article/wikileaks-snowden-interview

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