Virtual Reality is just about to be everyplace you are in very short time. A fabulous tech once promised in the 90’s for over a decade and about to be delivered to the masses in early 2016.
Topping the list off in the field was the over 2 billion dollar purchase of Oculus VR by FaceBook in 2014.
You may not know it, but I am quite a Online Privacy and Security Buff.
I have always had a idea that there would be some eery detail hidden within the Oculus Rift because of what I know about how Facebook does things. I would not be alone. Some may remember that the creator and author of the very popular game “MINECRAFT” made a comment that went viral after the accusation. He did later sell-out his most popular game to Microsoft shortly afterwards. CREEPY is the word I think he used. To understand why that comment may be justified, you need to know more about how the web works with information gathering and warehousing and analytics. Google has certainly already proved that is very valuable. But even department stores and banks, insurance companies… The list is long of those that buy it because they have not the means to collect it.
Now what I am about to say is only speculation about potential.
But in my experience that runs long in this tech field, is when something is possible and it inevitably becomes highly probable especially when so much money is to be made just about information on users.
My problem with information about users is that it is stored. Anything stored is open to be hacked. So even if the intent of collecting and using the information is good when it starts, it often changes as nobody knows what has been collected or when the value of it can be realized in a struggling budget of those who hold it.
So there is no way to have security of collected information and it should not happen unless you are able to look at it for accuracy (just like a credit report) because someone is eventually going to pass judgements on you from it and you don’t even know it exists. If the info is not going to be used to pass judgment on you then why hold it in the first place ?
I really like John Carmac who now works for Oculus as their chief Tech Officer. He is a good innovator, like a mouse, always goes for the cheese relentlessly. That is the stuff it takes to succeed.
While reading details on his new VRscript for making ease of use for online VR-WEB developers, I was stunned to see the interjection of net-hmd-driver that Facebook holds online.
This has that exact potential for what I feared most from the Oculus/Facebook acquisition and partnership.
Web Like: where the script is downloaded from the net for each execution and run by a single signed app that we provide (NetHMD). Fully specified by an app-scheme URI, this allows VR experiences to be launched directly from web pages or app-links on Facebook, which I think is VERY powerful – read about how great something is while browsing on your phone, then just click the link and get the “insert into HMD” dialog and jump right there. VR scripts can link to other VR scripts without leaving VR. There is no direct monetization here, but IAP can eventually be supported.
That snippet was obtained from:
Please believe me that I am not a conspiracy theorist in any way as I have spent more time explaining what others to not understand as they seem to have a need to make up a story to explain what they do not understand.
Facebook gathers more information on online usage that dwarfs what is being collected by Google and even if you never use their site/services.
If you never use FaceBook, take a look at how many Facebook cookies you have, many placed there for tracking on pages that display the Facebook icon. It actually gets even deeper than that but I have not the space to explain it all.
And for those of you who don’t think privacy matters, I can only say… give me your passwords. I won’t tamper with your account. I would just like to post your thoughts or actions towards others. Figure out your politics, etc…
There will be a time in the very near future that some of this info collection will be used in ways that you currently have no idea is taking place and you have no idea if it is accurate, let alone that it exists.
So maybe you don’t get those online shopping discounts because that information mistakenly makes you appear in a different social-economic status. Or your insurance goes up because of it. Or you son can’t get in to a collage or pays more for that. Perhaps you can not get a loan or pay a higher interest rate or perhaps it is used against you in a future court of law.
Information is forever and it is quite valuable and can be sold or traded and hacked multiple times every year for many years. It never goes out-of-date.
What seems insignificant now has a much higher relevance after it is to late to do anything about it. Currently, your birth-date is about as valuable as your SSN. Many of you give that away very freely. But to a hacker, a few pieces of info, is enough to put together much more.
Please consider the above FOOD for THOUGHT and you had better start thinking about it. Hope you are Hungry.