I had a chance to catch up with Oculus’ Nate Mitchell at GDC where I asked him about privacy in VR. Oculus has delegated the design and maintenance of their privacy policy to their parent company of Facebook so that Oculus can focus on providing the best VR experiences and growing the VR ecosystem. Mitchell acknowledges that there are “a lot of potential pitfalls over the future of VR and AR around user privacy” because VR has a “double-edged sword” of providing incredibly compelling immersive experiences, but that “used in the wrong way or in the wrong hands, you can be tracked probably more than you would normally expect to be.”
LISTEN TO THE VOICES OF VR PODCAST
I learned more about the relationship dynamic between Oculus and Facebook in that Oculus isn’t thinking too much about how to use the data gathered from VR for advertising purposes, but the language in Oculus’ privacy policy is being shaped and directed by Facebook who is much more interested in using data gathered from virtual reality for advertising purposes. Mitchell claims that privacy is a top priority for Oculus, but a close reading of their privacy policy indicates it serves the needs of Facebook over consumers.
Mitchell and I also talked about Oculus’ announcement of lowering the price of the Rift + Touch by $200, their twelve new games premiering at GDC, as well as a number of important issues concerning the future of virtual reality. There are a lot of exciting new possibilities that could come from Oculus’ support for WebVR and the Khronos Group’s OpenXR initiative, but we also had a chance to talk about some of the challenges that Oculus has faced this year including some of their tracking regressions and some of the limitations of front-facing camera set ups when it comes to abstractions of embodiment.
There are a lot of complicated issues surrounding privacy in VR, and Oculus has delegated the design and maintenance of their privacy policy to their parent company of Facebook. In Oculus’ letter to Al Franken, they say, “We also take advantage of Facebook’s expertise in other areas, including its large team of privacy and security professionals to help design and maintain privacy and security in our products. These collaborations allow Oculus to focus on what we do best: delivering the absolute best VR products and experiences.”
When I asked Mitchell about Oculus’ stance on privacy in VR. He said, “We are committed to really protecting user privacy. That’s one of our #1 focuses, which is why we have a super detailed privacy policy. And it goes hand-in-hand with that we are committed to being really transparent with users about what generally is being collected, and anything we’re doing with that. So that’s part of the reason why I think we have such a rich privacy policy to begin with. Also being part of Facebook, obviously, helps with that. They have an incredible team dedicated to user privacy, and they’re on the bleeding edge of that. And so that’s been great for us.”
I have to disagree in Mitchell’s assessment that privacy has been one of Oculus’ top priorities. Oculus’ top priority has been to deliver amazing VR experiences, and having a “rich privacy policy” that specifies everything that can be captured and recorded just means that it reflects the values and interests of Facebook. Facebook wants to collect and store as much data as they can, and tie back to a singular identity so they can sell advertising.
On January 11, I sent an email to privacy@oculus.com to “access data associated” with my account, but I never heard anything back from them after two and a half months. If it really was a top priority for Oculus, then I would have expected to have received a response, and that there would be more systems in place for the type of transparency and accountability that is promised within the “Data Access and Deletion” section of their privacy policy.
Oculus is mostly taking a passive approach to privacy in VR where they’re prioritizing the needs and concerns of Facebook, which is reflected in how much data sharing rights are being provided to Facebook. The following is a sampling of data that when combined together could allow Facebook to determine personal identifiable information about you: including your IP address, certain device identifiers that may be unique to your device, your mobile “device’s precise location, which is derived from sources such as the device’s GPS signal and information about nearby WiFi networks and cell towers,” “information about your physical movements,” and “information about your interactions with our Services.” Facebook will know that it’s your VR headset, where you’re located, and different actions that you’re taking from capturing everything you’re doing in VR and correlating it with your identity even if you’re anonymously interacting within the context of a VR experience. Once eye tracking and other technologies that can determine facial expressions are added, there will be even more biometric data that could be able definitively identify you or whomever is using your VR headset.
Their privacy policy contains an open-ended statement about recording communications that could potentially allow Facebook to record and store all VoIP conversations: “When you post, share or communicate with other Oculus users on our Services, we receive and store those communications and information associated with them, such as the date a post was created.” Oculus denies in their letter to Al Franken that they’re recording conversations by saying, “VoIP communications are not being recorded. We do not store the content of these communications beyond the temporary caching necessary to deliver these communications to people who could be in different parts of the world.” But it’s unclear as to whether or not the privacy policy as it’s written would prevent Facebook from starting to record conversations at any time.