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Comment by paldepind2 | Hacker News Reader

> All their other “products” are just suction pipes for hoovering up that data.

I don't think that's true for their VR/MR hardware. That's Meta's attempt to get a product that is _not_ like that, but which instead gets them in a position similar to where Google and Apple are for phones. I.e., where they own the platform and can profit off of that.

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> I don't think that's true for their VR/MR hardware.

They literally record the cameras and 'screen', then send it off to their servers.

The VR hardware absolutely spies on you. Even if you tell it not to, it still shows up in the mobile app.

And in what way are they then selling that data (which is what the person I replied to talked about)? Just the fact that the data is being sent to a server doesn't mean much. Tons of modern products relies on literally recording your data and sending it off to a server.

They literally don't.

That's true - their revenue from VR/MR hardware is less than 2.5% of revenue though. Meanwhile, ads make up the other 97.5% of their revenue. 97.5% of everything Meta does is to hoover the data and sell it. It's effectively their entire business, while VR/MR stuff is a little side project.

Dude they tried to force you to log in with your Facebook account to use your hardware. Everything made by that wretched company is tainted.

Did they back off of that? I have an older oculus I can dig out if I can safely walk its data off from Meta

The last time I complained about this someone mentioned they "only" force a Meta account and not a whole Facebook identity.

That's a distinction without a difference to me. I will not be purchasing hardware that requires a cloud account. Especially not a peripheral.

Xbox is pretty popular while requiring a Microsoft account.

Since we are in this thread - Apple requires you to use an Apple account on laptops, phones, watches, tablets, etc.

That's true, but then, I'm not saying that the Quest is an offline-only device without cloud features. I'm saying that Meta didn't invest $63 billion just to create a "suction pipe for hoovering up that data". They have much bigger ambitions than that.

If they have other ambitions, those ambitions haven't materialised yet. Selling decent hardware at a loss and profiting from hoovering up user data is all Facebook has accomplished with the Quest so far from what I can see.

Owning the platform + selling user data = double the profits.

You seriously think they will pass on this golden opportunity?

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