Oculus Quest 2: Facebook's $299 VR headset feels too good to be true | Cnet

The Quest 2 is faster, smaller, cheaper and better. But you have to use a Facebook login.

[ApocalypseShadow]

Nice power and nice price. But that login and potential for them to data mine everything you look at is a no go.

[TravsVoid]

It's the reason I lost interest.

[bouzebbal]

Yeah, fb can go to hell.. Won't even take one for free

[Outlawzz]

They are definitely going to get as much info on you as possible and sell to the highest bidder. There is nothing to stop them, they have a well established record already. This vr stuff is just a ploy. It's a shame oculus was bought by them.

[RonsonPL]

I don't agree about the last part. It's not a shame Oculus was bought by them. It's the biggest tragedy of XXI century, so far. In gaming. Such potential. A thing so good for gamers. Destroyed by the thing which is one of the worst evils out there. Just listen to what the Oculus founders say now about why they're no longer there. "Racing to the bottom" was the quote, I think.

Since the very first months, where it was baffling to see them putting more efforts into Gear VR than into the PC VR project, through years of lies, to the departures of the most important people (aside from Abrash and Carmack which are not really interested in PC VR gaming, unfortunately).

It was like being stabbed in your back and bleeding out over the years.
Palmer said that around 2020 he not only expects Rift 2 to be shipped but even Rift 3 as the PC is the natural home for technology advancements and it would be stupid to not use the newest tech to propell the VR gaming growth. Now the official statement is "we never said we quit PC VR, we'll consider releasing something for it, when we see the market built up already and it would bring us a risk-free profits. If it will be in 2021 or 2025? We don't care. We're in this for personal data, for the huge social VR network which will give us ubelievable power and money".

To think it's what we, the gamers, donated so much on Kickstarter. Someone should be in jail for this.

[smashman98]

I can't imagine they're going to get much more than what they already have access to. I haven't bought a new headset since PSVR so I will probably pick this up tomorrow. I want to play phasmophobia with it.

[ApocalypseShadow]

I don't have Facebook. The idea of connecting with friends, family, etc, is cool. There's some good in it.

**BUT**

Every number you add, every person, every place in a picture, every video, is mined for data to be sold or used against you.

Only thing Facebook doesn't know about is what you look at( the image), when you look at it(time of day), where you look at it(geo location, what area of your living space,etc) how long you look it(are you looking at that girl, guy, car, house? In what way?) and how you look at it( if they know you're looking at a girl or guy and the location of the body, they know what type of thoughts are going through your mind and what excites you or a thing you detest)

That's just from the top of my head. Add AR and that's more data. That person, place or thing is captured by the headset when you use it. A.I. Machine Learning, since you have to be connected to online and Facebook, let's them know things about you like personality, habits and real objects you enjoy. The login tells them that it was YOU looking at it.

They'll say it's not uploaded and stays on the headset. That the data they collect is anonymous.
How? It's your login. And that employees will only observe bad behavior when online with others (It's your login and your settings.) Say or do something they don't like will possibly get you banned. But the worst part is that they can brick your paid for headset for as long as they want. You won't be able to use it. Go read it. It's in their TOS. Besides Mods being invisible that monitor behavior. Yes. True as well.

Nice standalone. But a Trojan Horse to other things you may not want them to know. And you know zuckerberg is looking for avenues to increase the company's wealth and information collecting. Quest is one of them. Not saying to not buy it. Just know what it entails for the future.

[smashman98]

no yea I get all of that I'm a computer science major so I know a bit about these things. I know that most people don't understand the extent of the data that is collected.

But I do know. I know that the more we get from them the more we give to them. I also know that it is not a matter of if they will obtain this data, just a matter of when.

With that being said my phone has cameras on every side of it. I have many accounts with permissions given to many companies. I'm aware my info is actively sold. So rather than worry about it I'm just gonna say screw it and try to ignore it.

[RonsonPL]

It scares me how ignorant people are, even at the professional sites like this Cnet.

It's not 299$.
It's 299$ + all of your privacy, the amount of spying no one even imagined a few years back.
- always on MIC
- always on 4 cameras
- in the near future: your eye (that's like a finger print), tracking your every eye move, tracking your behaviors. What did you look at? How? For how long?

I wish people woke the ef.. up already. This title. It just causes me pain.

Compared to that, the other hidden costs seem to be of no importance. But I will mention:
- 64GB is not really usable. Want more? Say bye bye to 299$
- reviewers seem to agree you really have to buy that 50$ deluxe head strap
- long link cable - again, additional cost

But this is like nothing compared to the privacy value. For me, it's the most expensive headset on the market. And that's assuming you somehow don't lose your purchased games in Oculus store, after someone decides to feel offended and get your account banned on Facebook, which will also affect your Quest account.

Seriously. This is a wolf in a sheep's skin. Go buy something else. Oculus is no more. It's Facebook VR. That's not "just a change of name", people.

[Youngindy21]

300 bucks is still kind of a lot to ask considering the new consoles are just around the corner and will cost 500 bucks before tax and before games/accessories bought. Still it has my interest, but by the time I can afford a new VR set, PSVR 2 will probably be out.

[Lostbytes]

Its so inexpensive, to hid the fact they are getting paid another way. By selling your personal info. Pass.