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Oculus social features now require a linked Facebook account

nalex66
MVP
MVP
Apparently, starting today, Oculus social features (friends list, parties, visiting people's Oculus Homes) will now require a linked Facebook account. This was already the case for some apps like Venues, and some features, like accessing your phone's camera roll in the Quest gallery. Going forward, new social features will demand a Facebook account, and now existing features will too.

Starting today, when you choose to log into
Facebook from the Oculus Platform, you’ll be able to access new social
features that make it easier for you to connect with other people,
including:

  • Chats, so you can message your Oculus friends in or out of the headset with quick responses to hop into games together
  • Join your friends
    in VR directly from any device with links that open to where your
    friends are within an app, and see the most popular destinations where
    people are playing in VR
  • User-created Events, so you can organize meetups or multiplayer games with friends
  • Share photos, videos, and livestreaming to Facebook, allowing you to share your favorite moments to Facebook Groups from VR
  • Parties that any of your Oculus friends can join (previously parties were only invite-only)
  • Messenger friends can easily join you in VR when you send them links to join you where you’re playing

As
these changes roll out and we make it easier for people to connect and
build communities in VR, we’ll ask people to log into Facebook from the
Oculus Platform to use both the new social features above, as well as
existing social features like joining parties, adding friends, and
visiting other people’s Homes. These features are already powered by
Facebook, since Oculus is part of the Facebook family of apps. And now
first-party social interactions on the Oculus Platform will be backed by
Facebook identity, allowing us to help keep people safer in VR as we
grow the social VR ecosystem.


Personally, I'm not excited to see this, but I guess it's not surprising. I've never had a FB account, and haven't been interested in creating one, but we'll see how it goes--the obvious answer is to create one just for Oculus-related activity and not populate it with a lot of personally identifying information.

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kevinw729
Honored Visionary


Always stirring the pot Kevin or in this case boiled frog.   😄



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Anonymous
Not applicable

Spuzzum said:


snowdog said:

It really isn't a problem tbh. Just create a dummy Facebook account. Job done.

I've always had my Facebook account linked with my Oculus account so it's not going to make any difference to me personally, but if you have a problem with it just create a dummy account and don't go near the thing ever again.

And anyone stressing out about the data that Facebook have access to is about 25 years too late. Google has probably known your inside leg measurement and what sort of porn you like to watch since the 90s.



I'm already using a fake last name on my last account, that's now dormant, because they don't actually let you delete your account anymore. So, with a 'new' fake account, what happens to all your previously purchased games, that are under your original 'authentic' Oculus account? That's what worries me. Or, if you can simply sign into Venues, without changing your Oculus account...alrighty then. Or if they let me make my original Facebook account invisible, then I'd be ok. But right now, if I reopen my account, I'd pop up on my friend's feeds, therefore, telling any stalkers I'm back online. Just imagine a battered woman, trying to stay hidden from an ex...should she be forced to open a Facebook account just to use an Oculus Quest? This is absolute bullshit.



An Oculus account != a Facebook account. They're separate things. Oculus/Facebook are saying that you need a Facebook account to be linked to your existing Oculus account to take part in online features in the future. So you stick with your current Oculus account that you're using, go to Facebook and create an account under an assumed name (Fred Bloggs) and link it to your Oculus account. So when you log in to your Oculus account it's associated with your dummy Facebook account.

If you're a battered woman then that ex will be looking for Mrs Jane Doe, not Mr Fred Bloggs.

ElusiveMarlin
Rising Star
Everyone who is concerned about privacy with this should setup an account of Facebook with the same name of "Fred Bloggs", so that Facebook will suddenly get a few 10,000s of users with the same name!
That way, no one will know who is who!  🙂
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Zenbane
MVP
MVP
I already created my dummy Facebook account  to help with this situation. In my case, I have 2 facebook accounts now. My real one for family, friends, co-workers. And my Zenbane one. Time to go link 'em!

Considering what smart phones, alexa, and satellites in space are doing... I have little concern over privacy. I just prefer to pick and choose which consumers can obtain personal information from me. I find the general public to be far more evil than governments and corporations. It is the general public, afterall, who elects government officials and buys the corporate products. But I digress!

OmegaM4N
Expert Trustee


snowdog said:


Spuzzum said:


snowdog said:

It really isn't a problem tbh. Just create a dummy Facebook account. Job done.

I've always had my Facebook account linked with my Oculus account so it's not going to make any difference to me personally, but if you have a problem with it just create a dummy account and don't go near the thing ever again.

And anyone stressing out about the data that Facebook have access to is about 25 years too late. Google has probably known your inside leg measurement and what sort of porn you like to watch since the 90s.



I'm already using a fake last name on my last account, that's now dormant, because they don't actually let you delete your account anymore. So, with a 'new' fake account, what happens to all your previously purchased games, that are under your original 'authentic' Oculus account? That's what worries me. Or, if you can simply sign into Venues, without changing your Oculus account...alrighty then. Or if they let me make my original Facebook account invisible, then I'd be ok. But right now, if I reopen my account, I'd pop up on my friend's feeds, therefore, telling any stalkers I'm back online. Just imagine a battered woman, trying to stay hidden from an ex...should she be forced to open a Facebook account just to use an Oculus Quest? This is absolute bullshit.



An Oculus account != a Facebook account. They're separate things. Oculus/Facebook are saying that you need a Facebook account to be linked to your existing Oculus account to take part in online features in the future. So you stick with your current Oculus account that you're using, go to Facebook and create an account under an assumed name (Fred Bloggs) and link it to your Oculus account. So when you log in to your Oculus account it's associated with your dummy Facebook account.

If you're a battered woman then that ex will be looking for Mrs Jane Doe, not Mr Fred Bloggs.



My only worry with this is that the fake FB account will just leech all your real personal details anyway once your real Oculus VR account is linked to it,  so what you will have is a fake FB account that will have access to your real oculus account and all your personal info, location, payment details, transactions and so on. 😕

Personally for me i have no interest in any kind of FB account, fake or real, but at this point i only have the CV1 which is out of warrenty, and despite having the quest and S in my Argos trolley on numerous occasions i did not drop the hammer on either, so by luck i may have dodged a bullet, oh well. lol

CV1/Vive-knuckles)/Dell Vr Visor/Go/Quest II/ PSVR.

nalex66
MVP
MVP

OmegaM4N said:

My only worry with this is that the fake FB account will just leech all your real personal details anyway once your real Oculus VR account is linked to it,  so what you will have is a fake FB account that will have access to your real oculus account and all your personal info, location, payment details, transactions and so on. 😕

Personally for me i have no interest in any kind of FB account, fake or real, but at this point i only have the CV1 which is out of warrenty, and despite having the quest and S in my Argos trolley on numerous occasions i did not drop the hammer on either, so by luck i may have dodged a bullet, oh well. lol



Facebook, as the owner of Oculus, already has access to any details that exist in association with your Oculus account. My new FB account has nothing that they don't already know about me--my name, email address, age, city of residence, and the same profile pic that I use here. As long as you don't go posting all your personal details and photos, you have nothing to lose.

It may be a stickier situation for people who already use Facebook and don't want that identity linked to their Oculus identity, since FB doesn't allow multiple accounts. Creating a fake account with a different name will change the real name associated with your Oculus account, and may get deleted at any time by FB if they determine that you have multiple accounts.

Of course, if you already use FB, then you've already accepted them having your info, so I'm not sure what the issue is with it being linked to your Oculus identity--it doesn't seem that this link in any way exposes your FB identity to your Oculus friends without your consent.

I've personally never wanted to use Facebook, but creating an account that is just an extension of my Oculus account doesn't really create any problems for me, so I went ahead and did it. It doesn't mean I have to start posting everything about my life to it.

DK2, CV1, Go, Quest, Quest 2, Quest 3.


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OmegaM4N
Expert Trustee
^^Well if you are happy with it then it won't be a issue for you, but i personally see no real benefits for end users who have enjoyed their CV1 online and single players with no issues since launch FB free, but as i said i don't really have a pony in this show anymore as my CV1 is out of warrenty and thankfully i did not crumble and grab a Quest or S, so if it becomes a mandatory requirement to access your oculus VR digital library then it looks like i will just have to take a hit i suppose, but such is lifes rich tapestry, we live and learn. 😉

CV1/Vive-knuckles)/Dell Vr Visor/Go/Quest II/ PSVR.

nalex66
MVP
MVP
Well, I didn't say I was happy about it, and I don't see any real benefit for users either, but I also don't see the need to make it out to be worse than it is.

For people who just want to play alone and don't care about social features, nothing has really changed. They can continue as they were with no linked FB account. For people who don't use FB but do want the features that are now locked behind a FB login, it's a bit of an annoyance to have to create another account, but the sky is not falling, and your privacy isn't compromised. You don't need to provide any more information to create a FB account than you've already provided by creating an Oculus account.

DK2, CV1, Go, Quest, Quest 2, Quest 3.


Try my game: Cyclops Island Demo

RedRizla
Honored Visionary
I just hope they don't make it that you have to create a facebook account just to play single player games in future. Anyways, I just purged my friends list of everyone now because it's become a bit pointless if going forward I will have to create another account. I mainly play on my own so hopefully it won't cause me any problems going forward.

Zenbane
MVP
MVP
Yep. As nalex said, anyone who has been using an Oculus product has already been part of Facebook's data collection. Adding a fake/dummy FB account doesn't expose you to FB any further than what you were already doing. Also keep in mind that Facebook purchases 3rd party collection data from just about every other company that collects info on you. So even if you don't use Oculus products nor any Facebook products, they still have data about you.

The only real concern should be opening up your privacy to the general public (e.g. people you don't know in real life, and people you may not want to share with). But his is where the Privacy Settings come in to play.