Meta may use the Quest Pro's eye-tracking to serve ads because of course it will | Hacker News Reader

Meta may use the Quest Pro's eye-tracking to serve ads because of course it will

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27 pointsantiviral15 comments

Normally I have some sympathy for Facebook (aka "Meta") users being abused by Facebook, because I understand some people feel locked into Facebook by their friends and family. But for VR, a glorified toy? You may as well complain that your pet cobra bit you. Why didn't you see this coming? Why did you choose to buy this thing even though the risks were obvious to everybody with at least half a brain? The headline says it, "because of course it will".

Throw it all away, that's the solution. VR hype has died before, let it die again. Let it be Facebook's hill to die on, then we can try it again in 20 years.

There's VR other than facebooks out there. No need to let the whole tech whither because of one bad actor.

"...Meta has updated its privacy policy to include an entry called “Eye Tracking Privacy Notice.” When you open up the page, you’ll find a couple of paragraphs dedicated to what data is collected. In it, the company states if you agree to share additional data, Meta will use eye-tracking and other data points “to help Meta personalize your experiences and improve Meta Quest.”

The same type of disclaimer was used for hand tracking, when you used it the first time. And, now there is much better hand tracking.

Machine learning requires data.

Regardless, these features can be left disabled. With Quest 2 existing, I assume most apps will have a graceful fallback.

That sounds great, but:

[1] "...the “fundamental” problem, the company admits, is that Facebook has no idea where all of its user data goes, or what it’s doing with it, according to a leaked internal document obtained by Motherboard.

“We’ve built systems with open borders. The result of these open systems and open culture is well described with an analogy: Imagine you hold a bottle of ink in your hand. This bottle of ink is a mixture of all kinds of user data (3PD, 1PD, SCD, Europe, etc.) You pour that ink into a lake of water (our open data systems; our open culture) … and it flows … everywhere,” the document read. “How do you put that ink back in the bottle? How do you organize it again, such that it only flows to the allowed places in the lake?”

[1] https://www.vice.com/en/article/akvmke/facebook-doesnt-know-...

I agree. That’s why I’ll probably be leaving it disabled, just as I did with the hand tracking (besides some quick tests for fun).

It’s not being forced, and Fallback will probably be graceful.

> Machine learning requires data.

If a company wants people to allow data collection on them in order to improve that company's products, out of their sense of goodwill toward the company, maybe they should avoid getting a reputation for abusing any and all data they collect to the detriment of their users to shove ads down their throat and sell or leak said data to unaccountable 3rd parties with even more nefarious purposes like subverting democratic elections or committing genocide. Fucking spare me.

Those with concerns can leave it disabled, as they could with hand tracking. This will spare you from the data collection for eye tracking.

Or, better, not use these devices in the first place.

Absolutely! But I think a factual understanding, to make that decision, is important.

For $1500 I wouldn't want any ads.

Pay 1500USD, get ads for free.

There are so many "could"s in this article and not a lot of evidence of any kind that this will be done. Meta is not going to serve ads based on eye tracking data. It would be stupid for them to this on their halo product or frankly, on any of their vr products. They need these products to succeed and they are not so naive as to jeopardize their nacent platform on some silly ad scheme at this stage. I understand the hate for meta on hacker news, but it's really a shame for it to be based on no evidence at all.

Here is Meta's "Eye Tracking Privacy Notice":

https://www.meta.com/help/quest/articles/accounts/privacy-in...

- Interested in some fresh ads? That'll be $1,500

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