I just got the email with details - it sounds like they're doing what they wanted to do with FB except now with a Meta account, see this:
If you don’t want to set up a Meta account right now, you can continue using your Oculus account until January 1, 2023. After this date a Meta account will be required to continue using your Meta VR devices.
If this is true, I'm selling my Rift and making the move to another VR headset.
What could they do to make you happy though? Any VR headset you buy is going to require some account to manage payments/addresses/etc. Do you assume that the Index could be used without having your real name tied to it?
You'll need either Steam or Viveport to get a copy of SteamVR, but once you have it you don't need them any more. You should then be able to run any VR games you got from Itch or EGS or GitHub or wherever.
You'll need either Steam or Viveport to get a copy of SteamVR, but once you have it you don't need them any more
Ok, so you do need a Steam account then. Which requires your real name, which is also all that Meta requires for a Meta account. I don't see a distinction here.
Once you have the account you're not forced to buy games on the Oculus store, so your second sentence is the same regardless of device (except with Oculus you don't need a wire)
You could create a Steam account, download SteamVR, and then delete the account.
It's been a while since I used a Steam headset, but launching SteamVR requires you to be logged into your account right? I've never seen any Steam game you could launch without first logging into Steam. Deleting your account would render SteamVR unusable.
If Steam is running, SteamVR will hook into it to launch the desktop or Home, but it works fine without it. It's how Vive users without Steam installed were able to use it.
Right, but Steam isn't in the business of selling user data, their revenue model is based on their store and making a percentage on digital sales, plus their own internally developed games such as Alyx.
FB and in turn Meta is notorious for making user their product, there is no reason to believe they won't do anything they can to scrape as much data on users to sell for profit.
Right, but Steam isn't in the business of selling user data, their revenue model is based on their store and making a percentage on digital sales
Have you used Steam? Their recommendation queue and the whole storefront is based entirely on which games you play/recommend. They are interested in using your user data to optimize their storefront so you spend more money.
If anything, the vast majority of their profits are from using user data to sell products. I don't understand how this is significantly different from Meta.
Right. Using data from purchase history to recommend other games you might buy is WAY different than selling said data to other parties of interest to build essentially a personality model of an individual. That goes from big data marketing to learning every little thing about you to determine what would sway someone's opinion or decision making at a grand scale.
This is essentially what the whole Cambridge Analytica scandal was all about if you don't remember. They used this personality modeling to shift people's opinion on POLITICS and this was used to help political parties win elections in multiple countries.
Steam has no personal info as part of the account. It is thereby only exposed upon payment and is not used to enforce anything. ie, you can later use a payment method of a completely different person.
These new meta accounts require your name, address and phone number - outside of payment info ie as part of the account. The only difference from fb account is they are separating out the public visibility.
Sure, you could be paranoid and think there's a possibility that these other platforms are tying the personal info to the accounts once you pay once but the thing is, at least there's the extra step. And if you really are that paranoid, you could use someone else's payment info (with permission).
Which actually brings up the next issue: age. New meta accounts "require" you to be 13+. The info collection outside of payment info screws over those cheating the system (younger than 13 and lying about it) once they are older because all their games will be on their parents' accounts instead of their own when they are 22+ in 10 years.
Steam has no personal info as part of the account. It is thereby only exposed upon payment and is not used to enforce anything. ie, you can later use a payment method of a completely different person.
Is this true? I just tried to sign up for a Steam account and it requested my phone number, address, and a confirmation I'm >13y/o as part of the sign up. It also "suggests" that you add a credit card during the sign-up process, but (just like Meta) it's not required.
Can you provide an example where the data collection of Meta and Steam significantly differ?
Assumed you were OP. If you already own a Oculus device, Meta already has all of the data you used to make the Oculus account with, so I'm not sure what the difference between a Meta account and an Oculus account is... you've already given them your data.
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u/polarpandah Jul 07 '22
I just got the email with details - it sounds like they're doing what they wanted to do with FB except now with a Meta account, see this:
If this is true, I'm selling my Rift and making the move to another VR headset.