Today, I took the final step in my emancipation from Facebook and Oculus. I did a factory reset on my original version Oculus Quest, de-associating my Oculus account from it, and wiping all the games and apps on it. Then, I deleted the Oculus app from my cellphone. Two simple steps, and I am now completely free of Facebook! (The Quest 1 will be going to my sister-in-law in Alberta, where she plans to use it in her work with developmentally-challenged adults. It will have a good second home.)
I’ll admit that I was sitting on the fence for a little while, as I wrote about here. While replacing my Oculus Rift with a Valve Index was an easy, painless upgrade (and I’m quite happy with it), there’s currently no competition for the wireless Oculus Quest VR headset. It’s a great headset, but I can no longer in good conscience sign on to the associated vacuuming of my personal data that comes with the deal, and I just absolutely, resolutely refuse to set up an account on the Facebook social network for my Oculus Quest.
What finally pushed me into making this final decision was a recent tweet by social VR app developer Cix Liv, who posted the following:
Just to put in perspective the corporate lies of @FBRealityLabs [Facebook Reality Labs] in perspective. @boztank [Andrew Bosworth, Vice President of Facebook Reality Labs at Facebook] says there will be a “big shift in privacy”. Meanwhile the Oculus app tracks you even more than their Facebook app. Check it yourself.
Cix Liv is one of those developers whose idea for a VR app was poached by Facebook, a story you can read about in a December 3rd, 2020, Bloomberg News article titled Facebook Accused of Squeezing Rival Startups in Virtual Reality (original article, archived link).
Now, you might tell me that I am overreacting in singling out Facebook as the target of my ire. Of course, I do know that other Big Tech companies like Amazon, Apple, Google, and Microsoft strip-mine my personal data as well. The issue is one of TRUST. And frankly, I no longer trust Facebook Inc., while I still retain at least some level of trust that Amazon, Apple, Google, and Microsoft will not abuse the data they have on me. In an editorial I wrote way back in August of 2019, I said:
More concerning to me is that, at some point, I may be forced to get an account on the Facebook social network to use apps on my Oculus VR hardware. In fact, this has already happened with the events app Oculus Venues, which I recently discovered requires you to have an account on the Facebook social network to access.
Sorry, but after all the Facebook privacy scandals of the past couple of years, that’s a big, fat “Nope!” from me. I asked Facebook to delete its 13 years of user data on me, and I quit the social network in protest as my New Year’s resolution last December, and I am never coming back. And I am quite sure that many of Facebook’s original users feel exactly the same way, scaling back on their use of the platform or, like me, opting out completely. I regret I ever started using Facebook thirteen years ago, and that experience will inform my use (and avoidance) of other social networks in the future.
Yes, I do know that I have to have an Oculus account to be able to use my Oculus Rift and Oculus Quest VR headsets, and that Facebook is collecting data on that. I also know that the Facebook social network probably has a “shadow account” on me based on things such as images uploaded to the social network and tagged with my name by friends and family, etc., but I am going to assume that Facebook has indeed done what I have asked and removed my data from their social network. Frankly, there is no way for me to actually verify this, as consumers in Canada and the U.S. have zero rights over the data companies like Facebook collects about them, as was vividly brought to life by Dr. David Carroll, whose dogged search for answers to how his personal data was misused in the Cambridge Analytica scandal played a focal role in the Netflix documentary The Great Hack (which I highly recommend you watch).
We’ve already seen how social networks such as Facebook have contributed negatively to society by contributing to the polarization and radicalization of people’s political opinions, and giving a platform to groups such as white supremacists and anti-vaxers. The Great Hack details how Cambridge Analytica used Facebook data without user knowledge or consent to swing the most recent U.S. election in Donald Trump’s favour, and look at the f***ing mess the world is in now just because of that one single, pivotal event.
Well, as it turns out, Facebook did do an about-face, change the rules, and insist that Oculus VR headset users will have to get accounts on the Facebook social network for their devices to continue to work “properly”. While I still have an Oculus account (and, at least at first glance at the Oculus website, there appears to be no way to actually delete that account*), I no longer run any Facebook or Oculus apps on my desktop computer or any of my mobile devices. Facebook may still have a “shadow account” on me, but at least I can feel comfortable that I am no longer actively sending them any data from any Facebook/Oculus apps. Good bye and good riddance!
As for this blog, I will, of course, continue to write about Facebook, Oculus, and Facebook’s own social VR platform, Facebook Horizon—just not from a first-person perspective! I do not feel that I am missing out on anything by the stance that I have taken.
Free from Facebook, at last! It feels great.
*Found it! I have now asked Facebook to delete my Oculus account, too.
UPDATE Feb. 18th, 2021: I have decided to cut and paste the entire App Privacy statement from Apple’s App Store for the Oculus app below, so you can read for yourself just how much data the app shares with Facebook Inc.!
App Privacy
The developer, Facebook Technologies, LLC, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. This information has not been verified by Apple. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy.
To help you better understand the developer’s responses, see Privacy Definitions and Examples.
Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More
Data Linked to You
The following data, which may be collected and linked to your identity, may be used for the following purposes:
Third-Party Advertising
Purchases
- Purchase History
Financial Info
- Other Financial Info
Location
- Precise Location
- Coarse Location
Contact Info
- Physical Address
- Email Address
- Name
- Phone Number
- Other User Contact Info
Contacts
- Contacts
User Content
- Photos or Videos
- Gameplay Content
- Other User Content
Search History
- Search History
Browsing History
- Browsing History
Identifiers
- User ID
- Device ID
Usage Data
- Product Interaction
- Advertising Data
- Other Usage Data
Diagnostics
- Crash Data
- Performance Data
- Other Diagnostic Data
Other Data
- Other Data Types
Developer’s Advertising or Marketing
Purchases
- Purchase History
Financial Info
- Other Financial Info
Location
- Precise Location
- Coarse Location
Contact Info
- Physical Address
- Email Address
- Name
- Phone Number
- Other User Contact Info
Contacts
- Contacts
User Content
- Photos or Videos
- Gameplay Content
- Other User Content
Search History
- Search History
Browsing History
- Browsing History
Identifiers
- User ID
- Device ID
Usage Data
- Product Interaction
- Advertising Data
- Other Usage Data
Diagnostics
- Crash Data
- Performance Data
- Other Diagnostic Data
Other Data
- Other Data Types
Analytics
Health & Fitness
- Health
- Fitness
Purchases
- Purchase History
Financial Info
- Payment Info
- Other Financial Info
Location
- Precise Location
- Coarse Location
Contact Info
- Physical Address
- Email Address
- Name
- Phone Number
- Other User Contact Info
Contacts
- Contacts
User Content
- Photos or Videos
- Audio Data
- Gameplay Content
- Customer Support
- Other User Content
Search History
- Search History
Browsing History
- Browsing History
Identifiers
- User ID
- Device ID
Usage Data
- Product Interaction
- Advertising Data
- Other Usage Data
Sensitive Info
- Sensitive Info
Diagnostics
- Crash Data
- Performance Data
- Other Diagnostic Data
Other Data
- Other Data Types
Product Personalization
Purchases
- Purchase History
Financial Info
- Other Financial Info
Location
- Precise Location
- Coarse Location
Contact Info
- Physical Address
- Email Address
- Name
- Phone Number
- Other User Contact Info
Contacts
- Contacts
User Content
- Photos or Videos
- Gameplay Content
- Other User Content
Search History
- Search History
Browsing History
- Browsing History
Identifiers
- User ID
- Device ID
Usage Data
- Product Interaction
- Advertising Data
- Other Usage Data
Sensitive Info
- Sensitive Info
Diagnostics
- Crash Data
- Performance Data
- Other Diagnostic Data
Other Data
- Other Data Types
App Functionality
Health & Fitness
- Health
- Fitness
Purchases
- Purchase History
Financial Info
- Payment Info
- Credit Info
- Other Financial Info
Location
- Precise Location
- Coarse Location
Contact Info
- Physical Address
- Email Address
- Name
- Phone Number
- Other User Contact Info
Contacts
- Contacts
User Content
- Emails or Text Messages
- Photos or Videos
- Audio Data
- Gameplay Content
- Customer Support
- Other User Content
Search History
- Search History
Browsing History
- Browsing History
Identifiers
- User ID
- Device ID
Usage Data
- Product Interaction
- Advertising Data
- Other Usage Data
Sensitive Info
- Sensitive Info
Diagnostics
- Crash Data
- Performance Data
- Other Diagnostic Data
Other Data
- Other Data Types
Other Purposes
Purchases
- Purchase History
Financial Info
- Other Financial Info
Location
- Precise Location
- Coarse Location
Contact Info
- Physical Address
- Email Address
- Name
- Phone Number
- Other User Contact Info
Contacts
- Contacts
User Content
- Photos or Videos
- Gameplay Content
- Customer Support
- Other User Content
Search History
- Search History
Browsing History
- Browsing History
Identifiers
- User ID
- Device ID
Usage Data
- Product Interaction
- Advertising Data
- Other Usage Data
Diagnostics
- Crash Data
- Performance Data
- Other Diagnostic Data
Other Data
- Other Data Types
Wow…that’s a LOT. Why does Oculus need my search history and my browsing history, for example? Or my health and fitness data? And I’d love to know more details about this so-called “Sensitive Info”. What the hell’s that?
I understand that Facebook is currently fighting a battle with Apple over the amount and kind of privacy information being released to the consumer (according to this Harvard Business Review article and other sources).
Yeah, I think you’re “overreacting in singling out Facebook as the target of my ire.” FB is the only major company pushing VR forward at this time and without it I feel VR would collapse as an unprofitable niche that will be abandoned my big corporations that only care about quarterly profits ASAP if FB wasn’t pushing it. I feel I have to support the Quest if you want VR to advance other wise it will share the fate of 3DTV and be disappeared by major players. Don’t agree, just look at how Google and Samsung has abandoned VR and 3D photography that they were the big promoters of. I’m glad you are happy but this is the classic cutting off your nose to spite your face. I’ll be unfollowing you now.
Well, I’ll be sorry to see you go, Michael, but I’m not changing my mind. This was not so much one big decision, as a bunch of little decisions made over the course of three years, starting with my decision to leave the Facebook social network, which I had been a part of for 13 years. It’s not a decision I take lightly, but as I said in my blogpost, I still intend to write and editorialize about Facebook and Oculus—just not from a first-person perspective. I have voted with my feet (and my wallet) and I have zero regrets.
I suggest you watch the documentary The Great Hack on Netflix, and see how you feel about Facebook after viewing that.
As for virtual reality “collapsing” without Facebook, I really rather doubt that one person taking a stand on principle is going to stop Facebook Inc. from continuing to make millions of dollars in profit. I predict that the Oculus Quest 2 will sell well, and most people will create a Facebook account to use it (if they don’t already have one) without any qualms. I look forward to watching (and writing about!) the ever-evolving metaverse and the many companies who are building it—including, no doubt, companies who willing to go toe-to-toe in the wireless headset marketplace with Facebook at some point in the future.