Thread by @kentbye, Facebook is going to start requiring a Facebook account in order to [...]

Facebook is going to start requiring a Facebook account in order to use their VR headsets. They're sunsetting separate Oculus accounts in 2023, & new users will have to use their Facebook account starting in October 2020.
New privacy policy coming in Oct.
https://www.oculus.com/blog/a-single-way-to-log-into-oculus-and-unlock-social-features/

Facebook forcing VR users to use a verifiable real identity is not likely going to be a popular decision within the VR community.

You can track reactions/comments in these articles
https://www.roadtovr.com/oculus-facebook-account-required-new-users-existing-users/

https://uploadvr.com/oculus-facebook-account-required/

https://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/ic4ye1/new_oculus_users_required_to_use_a_facebook/ https://twitter.com/oculus/status/1295769244894785538

Facebook has a FAQ where they detail how they're going to use information from your Oculus activity to inform advertising on Facebook (but not "currently" on Oculus).

This has always been true, but having a separate Oculus account provided some distance.
https://support.oculus.com/424208161507635/

From the FAQ:
"If you already have a unique username from your Oculus account, you will be able to continue using that username in VR. If you don’t have a VR username, you’ll be able to create one when you set up your profile for VR." https://twitter.com/joejerome/status/1295776237852426241

https://twitter.com/joejerome/status/1295776237852426241

In March 2014 @PalmerLuckey said, "I guarantee that you won't need to log into your Facebook account every time you wanna use the Oculus Rift."

Now he says those "downvotes from people with more real-world experience than me were definitely justified."
https://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/ic4ye1/new_oculus_users_required_to_use_a_facebook/g20dysu/

Over 90% of retweets of Oculus' announcement Tweet have comments.
Sentiment analysis is overwhelmingly negative.
This announcement feels like another small step of turning VR into a surveillance machine dystopia.
It's kicking up lots of fears & mistrust.
https://twitter.com/oculus/status/1295769244894785538/retweets/with_comments

https://twitter.com/oculus/status/1295769244894785538/retweets/with_comments

Facebook's social VR apps have largely fallen flat over the last 6 years. It's possible there were too many failures, too much technical debt, & unnecessary overhead of maintaining multiple identity systems. There is some truth in @kimpall's mundane story: https://twitter.com/kimpall/status/1295796668344881153

https://twitter.com/kimpall/status/1295796668344881153

In the embargoed press release, Facebook said their terms of service & privacy policy were changing. I asked to see if I could review these changes, but they said they're not changing until October & they're not sharing them yet. This Q&A was removed from their published FAQ.

Facebook's announcement of requiring new VR users/Oculus hardware to have a Facebook account continues to get ratioed here.
10.9k comments to 3.5k likes.
10k retweets with comments for 11.5k total retweets.
Not sure if they knew it'd strike such a nerve.
https://twitter.com/oculus/status/1295769244894785538

https://twitter.com/oculus/status/1295769244894785538

The Oculus Quest is genuinely the best stand alone VR experience out there.
The Oculus brand gave some psychological separation to Facebook's baggage from all of the unintended consequences of their social network & erosion of trust in the Facebook brand: https://www.mediamatters.org/facebook/timeline-myriad-ways-facebook-has-exploited-users-trust-and-privacy-profit-recent-years

Timeline: The myriad ways Facebook has exploited users' trust and privacy for profit in recent years

Facebook has continuously manipulated the public with lies about data usage and repeatedly failed to respond to data breaches or correct its internal biases, according to Media Matters research...

https://www.mediamatters.org/facebook/timeline-myriad-ways-facebook-has-exploited-users-trust-and-privacy-profit-recent-years

UPDATE: The Q&A I said wasn't published in the FAQ was just published (it was a tech glitch).

In Oct. Facebook Technologies will get folded into Facebook Inc. & "Facebook will manage all decisions around use, processing, retention & sharing of your data."
https://support.oculus.com/424208161507635/#faq_297855214983066

Facebook released previews of the privacy policy & terms of service for Oculus users who don't merge to Facebook accounts (effective Oct 11th):

Preview of Oculus Privacy Policy changes:
https://www.oculus.com/legal/privacy-policy-for-oculus-account-users/

Preview of New Terms of Services changes: https://www.oculus.com/legal/terms-for-oculus-account-users/

For Oculus users who merge their accounts to Facebook, they'll be under Facebook's Data Policy as well as a new supplemental Oculus Data Policy that just applies to Oculus hardware users.
No previews of this new supplemental Oculus Data Policy yet.
FB data policy won't change.

I asked Facebook, "Will you be sharing the Oculus Supplemental Data Policy for Facebook users [who merge their Oculus accounts or buy new hardware] before October 11th?

Answer: "No – that document will become available on October 11th."

I expect some privacy changes on Oct 11.

The new Oculus Data Policy for Quest 2 or merged accounts released Oct 11.
For folks that merge their Oculus account into a Facebook account or get a Quest 2, then you'll follow the Facebook Data Policy + Oculus Supplemental Data Policy, which is here:
https://www.oculus.com/legal/privacy-policy/

NEW:
provide, personalize & improve Facebook Products (including seamless integration between FB Products)
provide measurement, analytics, & other business services (including ads),
promote safety, integrity & security,
communicate with you,
research & innovate for social good.

Oct 11: There's a new Oculus Cookie Policy for "Oculus websites, Oculus Browser or Oculus mobile apps (“Oculus Services”)."

[OLD] Cookies, Pixels, & Other Technologies
https://web.archive.org/web/20201007012922/https://www.oculus.com/legal/cookies-pixels-and-other-technologies/

[NEW] Oculus Cookie Policy [now used for ad campaigns.]
https://www.oculus.com/legal/cookies-pixels-and-other-technologies/

Oct 11: New Supplemental Oculus Terms of Service released today for Quest 2 users or if you merge your Facebook Account.
It's a totally different architecture.
I put in outline format below as an overview.

[NEW ToS]
https://www.oculus.com/legal/terms-of-service/

[Unmerged ToS]
https://www.oculus.com/legal/terms-for-oculus-account-users/

NEW Oculus ToS: "You are responsible for the activities of all users of your Oculus Products, & for their compliance with these Oculus Terms."

My take: You could lose your Facebook account if you let someone use your Oculus headset & they violate the ToS.
https://www.oculus.com/legal/terms-of-service/

NEW Oculus ToS: "Permission to use your name, profile picture, & information about your actions with ads & sponsored content."

Confusing on multiple fronts: Is this just Facebook seeing our real names? Do advertisers have permission to see our actions?
https://www.oculus.com/legal/terms-of-service/

NEW Oculus ToS: "Prohibitions & content removal."

All versions of the Oculus Terms of Service will start using the Facebook Community Standards:
https://www.facebook.com/communitystandards/

Conduct in VR Policy:
https://support.oculus.com/1694069410806625/

and Oculus Platform Abuse Policy:
https://developer.oculus.com/policy/platform-abuse-policy/?locale=en_US

New Oculus ToS: "Account suspension or termination."

Here's the section that details the conditions where you could lose access to, or use of Oculus Products and/or Facebook services.

Access to Oculus software & hardware is tied to your behavior in VR.
https://www.oculus.com/legal/terms-of-service/

New Oculus ToS: "Terms govern personal & non-commercial uses of Oculus Products."
Previously, Oculus ToS granted use of "the Software & Content solely for personal & noncommercial purposes."
Now you need Oculus for Business + Workplace for commercial use.
https://www.oculus.com/legal/terms-of-service/

Oct 11: Oculus for Business Enterprise Use Agreement CHANGES:
* Swapped Facebook for Oculus
* Added Community Standards
* NEW: "Facebook may use its affiliates, contractors, & third-party vendors & service providers to provide Enterprise Support."

https://business.oculus.com/legal/enterprise-use-agreement/

Sep 10: Oculus Developer Data Use Policy added entire DATA CHECK UP section with new requirements for content review, regular monitoring, certification, & audit + expanded ENFORCEMENT.

[Undated Previous Version]
https://web.archive.org/web/20200626015752if_/https://developer.oculus.com/policy/data-use/

[Updated Sep 10]
https://developer.oculus.com/policy/data-use/

There's A LOT more data Facebook collects for new Quest 2 users/merged accounts.
You have to look at the Oculus Supplemental Data Policy "In addition to the information described in the Facebook Data Policy under “What kinds of information do we collect?”"
https://www.facebook.com/policy

Again, "How We Use This Information?" for Quest 2 needs to look at both the Oculus Supplemental Data Policy + Facebook Data Policy.
FB has more personalization [aka psychographic profiling], location data, facial biometrics, ads, R&D, measurement, analytics, & academic research:

The "How is this information shared?" sections for Oculus Supplemental Data Policy + Facebook Data Policy could span from 3rd party apps, Facebook services, analytics services, demographics to advertisers, measurement partners, vendors, research academics, to law enforcement.

Facebook Data Policy "How do we respond to legal requests?" section details contexts under which information you share with Facebook could be shared with law enforcement. The Third Party Doctrine gives a lot of legal cover for sharing just about anything.
https://www.facebook.com/policy#legal-requests-prevent-harm

Facebook's Cookies & Other Storage Technologies was updated on Oct 5, 2020.
Last changes were just before GDPR 2018.
New examples with specific cookie names with lifespan.
Google Analytics cookie names.

[4 Apr 2018]
https://web.archive.org/web/20200819125358if_/https://www.facebook.com/policy/

[5 Oct 2020]
https://www.facebook.com/policies/cookies/

I had a chance to ask Facebook some questions about their new Supplemental Oculus Terms of Service & Data Policies.
"Permission to use your name, profile picture, & information about your actions with ads & sponsored content."
Name here can be either Oculus username or real name

The "activities" I ask about seem to be referring to the activity stream.
Facebook pointed to this blog post on how to control who sees your Oculus activity: https://www.oculus.com/blog/facebook-accounts-on-oculus/

"the actions you’ve taken in Oculus are not currently being shared with third-parties for ads."

"Repeated or particularly serious violations of Facebook’s Community Standards & Conduct in VR policy will result in your Facebook account being disabled, meaning that a user would no longer be able to log into their device using that Facebook account" & lose your content library

Facebook isn't sharing the specifics of what would cause a suspension vs a ban, but "a number of factors play a role in determining access to our services after a violation, including the seriousness of the violation and past platform violations."

There's no way yet to let someone log into their own Facebook account when they use your Oculus 2 HMD.
https://support.oculus.com/424208161507635/#faq_348623036379960

There's a risk of letting someone use you VR device as they could do something that gets your Facebook account or Oculus access suspended/banned.

Facebook needs more experiential ways of ramping up folks on their codes of conduct, especially when sharing your HMD.

Here's the sites they currently suggest:

The Oculus Safety Center
https://www.oculus.com/safety-center/?locale=en_US

Logging in with Facebook Help Center section
https://support.oculus.com/424208161507635/

There's a new Cookie policy, & they're using cookies on Oculus websites, Oculus Browser, or Oculus mobile apps.
I asked whether "Oculus mobile apps" meant VR apps, but they're referring to the Oculus mobile phone app.
[They're tracking apps by other means]
https://www.oculus.com/legal/cookies-pixels-and-other-technologies/

"Oculus Store Terms is a new document because Facebook is now the contracting entity for terms of service, & Facebook Technologies conducts sales of Oculus devices and store content."
Also a new data protection section to explain FB & FB Tech relationship:
https://www.oculus.com/legal/store-terms-of-sale/

It looks like Facebook has a newly expanded definition of Cookies that now includes Pixels.
Pixels used to be defined as "small pieces of code on webpages that do things like allow another server to measure viewing of a webpage and often are used in connection with cookies."

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