Oculus/FB stopped sales in Germany

Juniper

Juniper
[VR] sgurr said:
That's interesting, do data protection laws in Germany go beyond the EU rules?
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EU doesn't really have "rules" per se - they have guidelines, which each member country is free to implement how it sees fit.

I'm not surprised Oculus are falling foul of this tbh. GDPR is quite extensive in its scope, even at its very basic level. 🤷‍♀️
 

sgurr

S
Juniper said:
EU doesn't really have "rules" per se - they have guidelines, which each member country is free to implement how it sees fit.

I'm not surprised Oculus are falling foul of this tbh. GDPR is quite extensive in its scope, even at its very basic level. 🤷‍♀️
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Yeah, I guess I mean beyond GDPR. If Germany has a problem with it under GDPR then the UK and others should too.
 

Ashnak

Ashnak
Main problem Germany has (and AFAIK that applies to all of EU) is that Oculus is not allowed to share user data with FB (and vice versa). But so far, the Irish data protection agencies have been responsible for handling FB, and (as it is reported in DE), they're kind of lax towards companies that bring in big tax revenue to Ireland.

But - the article so far does not state any reason for this move from Oculus/FB, and the German data protection officials that were asked reported that there was no action so far from their side, but they'll follow the issue with interest. The connection to the announced required FB account to use a Rift is so far pure conjecture (albeit somewhat obvious).
 

Pville_Piper

Pville_Piper
I'm getting tired of this kind of crap. The pushing of spyware like Messenger all of the time. I'm really considering getting another headset but I don't use the headset to play anything else besides Elite... And I don't play that much anymore. A bit of a conundrum I suppose.

I'm seriously considering getting a RTX 3070 or 3080 but I'll wait until some reviews are out there. This would mean I could upgrade and enjoy the headset more.
 

Kyokushin

Kyokushin
I will sneak here and only write the G2 will be still to buy in Germany and is not require the account on Zucc portal ;)

In my opinion its good the regulator is stopping companies like Facebook in practicies where privacy data are raising the concernes. Kudos for Germany.
 

Frank

Frank
Pville_Piper said:
I'm getting tired of this kind of crap. The pushing of spyware like Messenger all of the time. I'm really considering getting another headset but I don't use the headset to play anything else besides Elite... And I don't play that much anymore. A bit of a conundrum I suppose.

I'm seriously considering getting a RTX 3070 or 3080 but I'll wait until some reviews are out there. This would mean I could upgrade and enjoy the headset more.
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It's quite telling that the FAQs about the changes to terms and conditions contains "We do not currently display adverts in Oculus devices"

So what's everyone doing? Setting up a Facebook account for their headsets or have they just decided to play out the two years grace they've given us. I doubt my headset's got two years left in it anyway
 

Ashnak

Ashnak
Frank said:
It's quite telling that the FAQs about the changes to terms and conditions contains "We do not currently display adverts in Oculus devices"

So what's everyone doing? Setting up a Facebook account for their headsets or have they just decided to play out the two years grace they've given us. I doubt my headset's got two years left in it anyway
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Switched to HP Reverb Pro some time before that announcement :p.
Now all I got to do is get off my lazy donkey and put up the Rift on eBay.
 

Old Duck

Old Duck
Frank said:
So what's everyone doing? Setting up a Facebook account for their headsets or have they just decided to play out the two years grace they've given us. I doubt my headset's got two years left in it anyway
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I recently blocked my Oculus app from connecting to the Internet (never really trusted it anyway), with the hopes that it'll just keep working forever as-is thinking I'm offline. I'm assuming this Facebook nonsense will be pushed out as an update, and if my Oculus never updates again, well then I should be set! Of course this means no more updates, but these updates never really do anything amazing for me anyway.

I will never sign up for Facebook. NEVER.
 

Dooguk

D
Old Duck said:
I recently blocked my Oculus app from connecting to the Internet (never really trusted it anyway), with the hopes that it'll just keep working forever as-is thinking I'm offline. I'm assuming this Facebook nonsense will be pushed out as an update, and if my Oculus never updates again, well then I should be set! Of course this means no more updates, but these updates never really do anything amazing for me anyway.

I will never sign up for Facebook. NEVER.
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Deleted my Oculus account the other day. It's the only way. :)
 

Old Duck

Old Duck
Dooguk said:
Deleted my Oculus account the other day. It's the only way. :)
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Does your VR headset still work? Or are you selling it?

I don't mind having an Oculus account, as it's a dummy account (I've given them no real information). Facebook insists on having our real* identity, and that's where I draw the line. Though I confess it irritates the heck out of me that "device drivers" are full-blown behavior-tracking stores these days... IMO the best solution is for some third party to reverse engineer the Oculus Rift and release a simple open source DRIVER ONLY for the hardware. I mean, what's next, will I need a Facebook account to use my HOTAS or my mouse?

* https://www.facebook.com/help/159096464162185/
 

Terekhov

Terekhov
Dooguk said:
Deleted my Oculus account the other day. It's the only way. :)
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Indeed, I am interested in the repercussions of not logging into the app (that seems to be where that say we will be when the support for Oculus accounts ends in a couple of years. Obviously there is the content issue. I've not purchsed anything though Oculus apart from free programs, so not much to lose there.

@Old Duck - Re blocking the Oculus app, Oculus also has some Services running in the background - I hate to think what telemetry they send as well.... Are you blocking their access as well?

In my opinion Facebook near the bottom of the slime well, but is it just me imagining it? or is the whole of the tech sector starting to exploit the roots that they have planted or years?. For example Google (poor hard up Google! - my heart bleeds for them!) doubling up on adverts, and now using annoying login popups to encourage authentications.
 

Dooguk

D
Sold it a couple of months ago. It was all part of my cunning plan to upgrade for Odyssey (when it was Q4). Got a couple of hundred for it. HP G2 announcement came at just the right time. That will arrive next month. Now waiting on the graphics cards reviews. Like you I want nothing to do with having a Facebook account. Got confirmation from PayPal this morning that Oculus have cancelled the billing agreement. Odyssey is getting some VR. I don't like this, it's going too well. 😊
 

Old Duck

Old Duck
Terekhov said:
@Old Duck - Re blocking the Oculus app, Oculus also has some Services running in the background - I hate to think what telemetry they send as well.... Are you blocking their access as well?
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Aggressively so.

block.png
 

Old Duck

Old Duck
I see these idiots at Oculus aren't backing down. I got the "we're handing over your souls to Satan Mark Z" email from them just a couple of days ago. Well, they can't have MY soul. I block them like I block all griefers :p
 
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