[jr2]

Instead of hijacking the Occulus thread, I decided I'd post here::

"We don't like Windows 10 because it spies on us!!" - various users in Win 10 threads on HLP

When you install Oculus Home a background service with full permissions is spun up and never spun down. This service is used to detect when the rift is turned on so it can automatically launch the rift, but it is also used to constantly communicate with facebook servers.

Source: https://www.reddit.com/user/WeAreVr-nn23

Now this should be concerning, if you look at Oculus' privacy agreement you will find these:

>Information Automatically Collected About You When You Use Our Services. We also collect information automatically when you use our Services. Depending on how you access and use our Services, we may collect information such as: >Information about your interactions with our Services, like information about the games, content, apps or other experiences you interact with, and information collected in or through cookies, local storage, pixels, and similar technologies (additional information about these technologies is available at https://www.oculus.com/en-us/cookie...r-technologies/)

Considering facebook has a sordid past with recording and analyzing through phone microphones this should be concerning. A bit further in Oculus's privacy agreement you will find:

>How do we use information? >We use the information to do a number of things that help us provide our Services to you and our partners. Here are some examples: >To market to you. We use the information we collect to send you promotional messages and content and otherwise market to you on and off our Services. We also use this information to measure how users respond to our marketing efforts.

Seems pretty obvious what the end goal is (built in microphone into the rift).

tl;dr: When you install Oculus home and agree to the terms of service you are agreeing to let Facebook use any and all information it can glean from your machine/rift/microphone to better target ads/sell to third parties.

edit: https://www.oculus.com/en-us/legal/privacy-policy/

[Scourge of Ages]

So who here didn't anticipate this scenario when Facebook acquired them? Hm, anybody?

[666maslo666]

I wonder if Vive SteamVR is doing the same thing. Collecting usage statistics is standard practice. The important question is, can it be turned off?

[Mammothtank]

So who here didn't anticipate this scenario when Facebook acquired them? Hm, anybody?

I didn't really follow the Oculus much so.... *slowly raises hand*.

[karajorma]

So who here didn't anticipate this scenario when Facebook acquired them? Hm, anybody?

I clicked on this thread to post the exact same thing. It's pretty bad considering the amount of money they are asking for a rift in the first place. Well, yet another reason why I'm glad Facebook is blocked in China.

[Dragon]

Yup, a personal uplink to give all your private data to Facebook, only 599$ a pop (plus shipping). You'll get VR googles if you order now.

That said, Valve's VR isn't cheap, either, and I'm not entirely sure it won't do the exact same thing. Oh well, I managed to disable Windows 10 spyware, I'll find a way to knock that one out when the time comes to get a VR (read: when I get out of this stupid country and start earning actual money, not this worthless scrap that passes for it in Poland ).

[Klaustrophobia]

In response to the second line, I don't and won't use Occulus Rift either.

[Mikes]

The word "Oculus" always had a sinister ring to it ... now it has a sinister purpose too ;-)

[Phantom Hoover]

I was rooting for Oculus simply because Valve can go **** themselves, but I guess I'm OK with saying all VR companies are terrible.

[Dragon]

Well, I quit at the time they sold themselves to Facebook. It's not that I still wouldn't like a VR headset, but I wish there was one that would be just a headset. Is it really that hard to make? When you buy a joystick, you have a joystick (and drivers/control manager for it, if it's fancy enough). On the other hand, all the available VRs come with a crapton of stuff I neither need nor want, both sofware and hardware. Spyware, games I probably wouldn't play, haptic controllers (a neat idea, but I can buy them separately if I need them)... They say they're "free", but in truth, they're simply included in the price. Seeing as a VR headset is little more than hi-res HMD with integrated headtracking (on their own, neither is a particularly new idea), none of those "services" are, strictly speaking needed.

I thought about buying a cinematic HMD and rigging up a Freetrack setup, but it's apparently setting such a thing up is more trouble than it's worth. I suppose I'll have to wait for some "no-nonsense" VR to appear.

[Phantom Hoover]

if anything they bring the price down by making the company more viable in the long run and more able to sell the hardware as a loss leader

[666maslo666]

I thought about buying a cinematic HMD and rigging up a Freetrack setup, but it's apparently setting such a thing up is more trouble than it's worth. I suppose I'll have to wait for some "no-nonsense" VR to appear.

That would not be good at all, it would be a vomit comet. For VR to work you need low latency and precise head tracking, neither of which can be provided by Freetrack. Currently there is no serious alternative to Oculus and Vive, and I dont see any appearing anytime soon.

I plan to order a VR setup in very near future, and as of right now I am leaning towards the Vive. Vive has included motion controls, native room scale support, and games that actually take advantage of this. Oculus concentrating on a seated experience was a mistake. VR games will not represent a jump in immersion only, but also a jump in gameplay. They wont be played in the same way as traditional games are. Playing a VR game sitting still with a gamepad instead of motion controls is just as restricting as playing with no positional tracking, or narrow field of view. It is cool but it is not VR. There are also reports of Vive having somewhat higher field of view, which is a crucial parameter for me. Its complicated because real effective field of view is binocular, and depends also on binocular overlap, so I am still researching this. But as of right now, the only real advantage of Oculus seems to be ergonomics and integrated audio. Even the price is lower merely because Touch is not included. Meh..

[Dragon]

That would not be good at all, it would be a vomit comet. For VR to work you need low latency and precise head tracking, neither of which can be provided by Freetrack. Currently there is no serious alternative to Oculus and Vive, and I dont see any appearing anytime soon.

Figured out that much, this is precisely why I didn't go ahead with that idea (along with crappy resolution of cinematic HMDs). Sony is also developing a VR device, but it seems to be mostly for use with PS4 (it might be possible to connect that one to a PC, though). Seeing as Sony already gets all the info it might want from PS4, they might actually skip adding spyware to the VR itself. That said, it's likely that this set will be the more expensive than either Oculus or Vive.

I want a VR mostly for use with flight simulators, essentially the same thing head tracking is most often used for. Unless Bohemia Interactive makes them useful for ArmA, I've got little interest in motion control devices.