The newly launched premium device from Sony, Oculus and HTC will account for about 77% of the total value, but will only account for 13% of the volumes in 2016. Being able to track both enables location tracking through the stationary Oculus Rift headset and the mobile Gear VR (made by Samsung in partnership with Oculus VR). For starters, your IP address is pretty telling, as is any shipping information you provided with your Oculus preorder (since that’s the only way people can now buy the hardware). Some of the privacy concerns over the Oculus privacy policy arose in part because the device doesn’t really ever turn itself off, unless it’s unplugged.
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The senator’s interest in matters of privacy and data mining with Oculus Rift represents the most high-profile interrogation of the company’s policy, which has recently been flagged by other outlets.
In the open letter the senator asked the CEO of Oculus that how the headset collects location data and movement of users, and how long the company keeps the data to itself before giving it to third parties access to it.
Looking at individual brand awareness, the Oculus Rift was the marque name, with 22 percent of respondents claiming to have heard of the device.
Strategy Analytics believes that high-end VR headsets that must be tethered to PCs and came consoles (the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and coming PlayStation VR), will be lucky to exceed 1.7 million devices shipped globally this year because of “prohibitively high pricing”.
It’s not clear why Oculus needs data on movement.
In addition, though, it also says it may use the information to market to users, meaning it will likely use the location data to send ads to users for nearby stores and deals.
In a statement to UploadVR earlier this week, Oculus said it is “thinking about privacy every step of the way”, adding that it collects user data to check device stability, address technical issues, and improve the experience overall.
“When done properly, the collection, storage, and sharing of personal information may enhance consumers’ virtual reality experience, but we must ensure that Americans’ very sensitive information is protected”, Sen. “We don’t have advertising yet and Facebook is not using Oculus data for advertising”, Oculus said. “The PC and Console powered virtual reality market is entering the classic chicken and egg phase whereby the major games publishers are waiting on the side-lines until there are enough VR headsets and users in the market for it to make financial sense for them to build a VR library of content”, said Watkins.
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The site then went in-depth with the company’s terms and conditions, voicing concerns about whether Facebook and Oculus planned to use information collected from users for advertising.
