Η κυκλοφορία του Oculus Rift είναι η πρώτη μεγάλη στιγμή του ερχομού της εικονικής πραγματικότητας, αλλά, παρά τη σταθερή υποδοχή από τους χρήστες, οι πολιτικές της εταιρείας είναι υπό αμφισβήτηση, όσον αφορά τη collection data and how it respects the privacy of people using the device.
Al Franken, a US Democratic senator, issued a public letter addressed to Brendan Iribe, CEO of Oculus Rift. The letter asks for more details on how the company collects, stores data and then shares that information collected by users with other companies.
The main concern seems to be the diaconnection of the VR device with Facebook, which could allow the biggest social network to get even more details from its members and then use them to better target content and ads.
Al Franken says:
"I believe Americans have a fundamental right to privacy, and that right includes an individual's access to information about what data is collected from them, how it is processed, and what data is shared with other companies. As VR technology evolves, I'd like to ask you to provide more information about the Rift and how Oculus is dealing with its issues. protectionof privacy and security.”
The senator admits on the other (as a genuine diplomat) that sharing information collected can improve the experience of virtual reality but wants to make sure that the methods of protection are adequate.
The fairly hypocritical message in this story is that a government is worried about the protection of personal data that may be at risk from a virtual reality device when the United States Information Service NSA collects everything.
Please note that Oculus Rift is not the only virtual reality device.
In autumn Sony is preparing to release the PlayStation VR, which is expected to break into the market with higher overall sales as it is linked to the already successful PlayStation 4 series.
So Al Franken for his own reasons (see votes) may be "concerned" about the relationship between the Oculus Rift and Facebook, but other companies preparing virtual reality devices will also be able to share privacy to third parties.
