VR and privacy

Discussion about VR

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SteveK
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VR and privacy

Post by SteveK » Mon Nov 25, 2019 10:22 pm

After a number of increasingly difficult years in which I had to step back from RL gliding, and was unable to consistently allocate time to flying Condor either, I’m now trying to get back into Condor (or at least will be over the coming months). I’ve just updated my graphics card to an RTX 2060 based card (My previous GTX 950 was barely enough for full graphics settings), and was thinking about VR……. Possibly shopping the Black Friday deals. this week.

Obviously the Rift S springs to mind but there is one significant possible show-stopper for me - Privacy. The Facebook ownership of Oculus means that the Oculus products effectively come under the Facebook Privacy Policy (which means basically, you sign it all away, or at least agree that FB can change the privacy goalposts anytime they please). A little research bought up an interesting internet post in which the author persisted with FB to enquire if they actually captured images from the Rift S cameras. Eventually, they said they didn’t do so AT THIS TIME (i.e. the answer whilst probably being honest, left the door open for the future).

Looking at the alternative VR solutions - it appears that the Oculus software is still required (I suppose with the same privacy concerns) - Is that the case? Thoughts?

I assume that at least an Oculus sign up is required to use the Rift - Is that the same for the Oculus software components used with WMR headsets?

sisu1a
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Re: VR and privacy

Post by sisu1a » Tue Nov 26, 2019 4:53 am

I have a Valve index and it's fantastic for Condor and also have a 2060 and it has enough horsepower to run it. I personally despise Facebook and want nothing to do with them either but unfortunately the only VR support for Condor is through the Oculus SDK so you have to have the Oculus client installed and use reVive. Hopefully one day the dev team switches to OpenVR so we don't have to use reVive anymore and non Oculus users won't have to jump through so many hoops but until then there's no way around it if you want to play Condor in VR, You don't have to use an Oculus to do it, though the S is a great value in terms of bang for the buck and ease of use.

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BOD1
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Re: VR and privacy

Post by BOD1 » Tue Nov 26, 2019 9:35 am

which the author persisted with FB to enquire if they actually captured images from the Rift S cameras. Eventually, they said they didn’t do so AT THIS TIME (i.e. the answer whilst probably being honest, left the door open for the future).
FB DID record images from environment indeed. But it was in beta stage for bug tracking purpose with users perfectly aware and agreeing. FB would have too much to lose if they enable this again without deliberate consent.
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EDB
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Re: VR and privacy

Post by EDB » Tue Nov 26, 2019 1:30 pm

BOD1 wrote:
Tue Nov 26, 2019 9:35 am
FB would have too much to lose if they enable this again without deliberate consent.
Don't be naive. They've done it before multiple times and will do it again if they can sell the data for a lot of money. They only have to say "Sorry" in a public hearing and that's enough.

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Re: VR and privacy

Post by BOD1 » Tue Nov 26, 2019 2:23 pm

Don't forget GDPR, I'm pretty sure a $2 billion fine doesn't worth the benefit of selling these data.
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Re: VR and privacy

Post by EDB » Tue Nov 26, 2019 3:28 pm

BOD1 wrote:
Tue Nov 26, 2019 2:23 pm
Don't forget GDPR, I'm pretty sure a $2 billion fine doesn't worth the benefit of selling these data.
The GDPR is there for EU citizens only.
And we already had the Directive 95/46/EC of the European Parliament since 26 July 2000. That didn't help us either. And not all Condor pilots are located in the EU.

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Re: VR and privacy

Post by cyberpanic » Thu Nov 28, 2019 10:15 pm

WMR might be an alternative. If you are mainly interested in Simulations like Condor2 or XPlane I can recommend the HP Reverb. It has a resolution of 2160x2160 - per eye. I run it with a GTX 1080 TI but it was also fine with a 1070. Yes, you still need to install the Oculus Software, but you do not need to create an account for it. Just stop the installation program at that point.

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SteveK
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Re: VR and privacy

Post by SteveK » Fri Nov 29, 2019 7:36 am

Thanks guys,

I did decide to go with the Rift S in the end - I'll need to be careful about settings etc, and maybe get funky with my firewall rules at some point in the future. The fact that I was going to have to install anything form Oculus at all in the other scenarios was the deciding point - the telemetry will probably be there anyhow.

I installed it and and managed to get into the 3D virtual skies last night.... It IS stunning....

One more off-topic bit of fun before getting back onto the privacy discussion. I mentioned that I'd obtained an RTX 2060 card - which one did I get???? The MSI VENTUS 6GB OC of course!. :D .. How could a glider pilot see that and not go for it??? (I wonder if it makes the simpler gliders perform as if they have flaps???). An irrational reason to select a card, but a fun one anyhow (and the spec/pricing position of the card were were in the area I was looking at, so the choice didn't compromise either of those elements)

Regarding the posts on regulation above.

Regulation only partially works, as the manufacturers simply write a privacy Policy that allows then to do what they want. 95% don't read it at all, most of the rest probably skim it, hold their nose closed, and click "accept" anyway (as they need the access, and they need it NOW!!!!)

The only thing that could work would be an outright ban on data transmission/storage for non-essential purposes not congruent with the main purpose of the product/service being purchased. But then how do define the red line between necessary and the opportunistic traffic? That yould be enough work to keep the legal profession in their yachts for decades to come!

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