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Tell HN: Oculus will delete purchases if you don’t switch to a meta account
Just received an email from Meta, part of it states:
“Starting January 1, 2024, we will start deleting old Oculus accounts to ensure that we are not keeping Oculus account data longer than necessary. If you do not create a Meta account by this date, your Oculus data (including associated apps, content and games you have downloaded or purchased) will be deleted.”
- BiteCode_dev 4y agoIf you are in Europe, this is likely illegal. But I don't think anybody has deep pockets enough to try to bring that to court.
- awinter-py 4y agomargrethe vestager's pockets are pretty deep and also get deeper if she wins
- snvzz 4y agoOne way would be to get the public prosecutor (i.e. EU itself) involved.
- jjcon 4y agoIsn’t it GDPR that is requiring them to delete this data in the first place?
- Dylan16807 4y agoOf course not. Why would GDPR require a company to delete the records of who owns what inside their ecosystem?
- jjcon 4y agoBecause GDPR puts restrictions on how inactive or deprecated account data can be kept - to prevent mining of forgotten accounts I suspect was the intention
- temporary22 4y agoi never heard of this, can you link the gdpr article on this?
- rlpb 4y agoI don't think that extends to "forgetting" that you purchased a game so now you have to buy it again. That would be absurd.
- jjcon 4y agoThey aren’t the only gaming company to interpret GDPR that way and they are arguably target #1 by EU regulators so they don’t have room to misinterpret Here is one of the provisions of interest: https://gdpr-info.eu/art-5-gdpr/ https://gdpr-info.eu/art-5-gdpr/ Ubisoft also cites GDPR provisions for deletion of inactive accounts: https://www.gamepressure.com/newsroom/ubisoft-removes-player-account-all-in-accordance-with-the-law/za3e20 https://www.gamepressure.com/newsroom/ubisoft-removes-player...
- MattPalmer1086 4y agoThis is nonsense. While you cannot keep personal data lying around forever with GDPR, deleting accounts after 6 months or a year or inactivity is a choice being made by the company. They could equally well have said that an account which was inactive for 2 years, or 3 years would be deleted and still be legally compliant.
- jjcon 4y agoThe requirement is “no longer than necessary” - meta started migrating people away from oculus accounts with the release of the quest 2 over 2 years ago in 2020. If you have regulators breathing down your neck being conservative on time isn’t a terrible idea.
- rlpb 4y ago> They aren’t the only gaming company to interpret GDPR that way and they are arguably target #1 by EU regulators so they don’t have room to misinterpret Malicious compliance. They deliberately misinterpret and continue to get pulled up on it. For example, just recently: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-63784393 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-63784393 This completely contradicts any argument that their interpretation of privacy regulation is remotely compliant. They cross the line in their favour relentlessly.
- benp84 4y agoWhy are they so adamant about destroying whatever goodwill they have left?
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- GauntletWizard 4y agohttps://time.com/38366/here-are-7-promises-oculus-has-made-after-getting-bought-by-facebook/ https://time.com/38366/here-are-7-promises-oculus-has-made-a... https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2016/09/facebook-login-adds-real-name-policy-auto-updated-friends-list-to-oculus/ https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2016/09/facebook-login-adds-r... https://www.quora.com/Do-you-need-a-Facebook-account-to-use-the-Oculus-Quest-2 https://www.quora.com/Do-you-need-a-Facebook-account-to-use-... This has changed back and forth twice now in the less than 10 years since Oculus launched.
- actionfromafar 4y agoI can't believe it's been 10 years...
- reason-mr 4y agoGo ahead. Recent reviews of your device have not been positive, and the apple device will be out soon.
- awinter-py 4y agoah this explains why they were so into legs Login or Erase Games Sold
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- latchkey 4y agoI sold mine and won't be buying another one, so the purchases are moot any way.
- ashwagary 4y agoI can't blame you. I'm glad I never gave money to Facebook for an Oculus.
- latchkey 4y agoI'm not one of those people who hates on companies in that way. They are all evil in some form of another and life is too short. I'm glad I tried it. The technology is pretty cool. I can see uses for it. The Saber game is a lot of fun. I just found that I'm not compatible with the device. After some period of time, it literally made me feel nauseous sick. I felt that I could have spent time training myself, but I quickly realized it isn't worth it. I'm not much of a game player any way. If I'm going to be on a computer, I'd rather be spending that time writing code, reading/commenting on HN, or learning new things.
- ashwagary 4y ago>I'm not one of those people who hates on companies in that way. They are all evil in some form of another and life is too short. I can understand your view but find Facebook uniquely evil. Early on I opted for other VR solutions that were promoted by Valve because I knew they would eventually trample user freedom and privacy in the name of profit seeking.
- mindcrash 4y agoTo add to the confusion: A Meta account is not a Facebook account. Meta accounts are specifically to get access to Meta's metaverse. So basically it's a newer version of the old Oculus accounts. For Facebook you still need a separate Facebook account.
- throwaway5959 4y agoI’m OK with that. Separation means I can dump either at any time.
- the_af 4y agoI'm ok with the separation too, I don't see what my gaming device has to do with my social media [1], but what annoys me is the lack of clarity: Facebook, vs Meta vs Oculus, which is which and what is being forcibly upgraded and why? I mean, I can find out by reading their docs and press releases or whatnot, but why should I? If it's mandatory, just make the process automatic, with no guesswork on my part. [1] it's bad enough that many of my facebook hobby groups are public, and therefore every comment I make in one of them is likely to get spammed to my family, friends and coworkers who have zero interest in my hobbies or what I have to say about them. Imagine if HN and facebook were linked, and every comment I made here was spammed to my mum's fb feed.
- GauntletWizard 4y agoI wish it had come before I had to dump my old Oculus account to dump my Facebook account. I will not miss the ~$100 that those games cost me, but I will miss not having the continuity of memory they represented.
- dieselgate 4y agoDang, not an oculus/meta User but hopefully people can transition over their games/content to the new account in the shuffle of it all. What a headache! It often such a bummer as a consumer when the platform you bought into gets acquired.
- xnx 4y agoAnother example for the recent thread about why piracy is a reasonable option.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- danuker 4y agoI will never buy hardware that requires an online account. At least not expecting it to last. If a company does not leverage the account, maybe they go bankrupt, get acquired, or just shut down their servers supporting old hardware. That said, I wonder if people might still qualify for small claims when their devices get turned into bricks.
- the_af 4y agoI was confused by the terminology between Meta, Oculus and Facebook accounts, and which was an upgrade of which. When confronted by the upgrade (I was actually trying to do something else, which required upgrading the account to Meta, which required upgrading the software) I tried the path of least resistance, which was just "log in with your email". I didn't remember if this was how I always logged in, and honestly this is a gaming gadget which receives far less atention than my laptop or mobile -- I just figured whatever I chose would be harmless. Turns out this wasn't right, and then the oficial docs warn that choosing the wrong option may result in creating an empty new account without any apps/games, which will require deleting it before proceeding, which may take up to 90 days. I freaked out, tried logging in, it didn't work, freaked out some more and one of the random things I tried (I forget which) worked and I suddenly had all my stuff again. Noteworthy here: I'm tech savvy, this shouldn't require freaking out, and in fact it should be smooth sailing, something like "click here to upgrade, done, you're ready to go".
- bombcar 4y agoAnytime an account that uses an email as a unique ID is merged with another system that may or may not do the same, you get weird results. I still have some iTunes purchases tied to an iTunes account that somehow has the same email as my main Apple ID but is not tied to that Apple ID.
- mcv 4y agoThe Minecraft migration to Microsoft accounts is another excellent example of this.
- crazygringo 4y ago...but why? I was happy to switch from my original Oculus/Facebook account to a Meta account back in October when I was prompted to, I never wanted the (originally mandatory) Facebook association in the first place. But why wouldn't Meta just migrate these accounts automatically? I'm baffled by how the pros could possibly outweigh the cons for Meta here. For people who don't touch their Quest for a year and a half that was associated with an e-mail account they don't check regularly, and then decide to dust the Quest off to play a game when their niece or nephew visits... and discover all their games are gone? What the hell? The resulting hatred towards Meta is going to cost more in the long run than any extra money resulting in re-buying a couple of games. I usually feel like I can understand when companies take user-hostile decisions because it's still easy to see how it makes sense for the company/investors. But here, I'm utterly stumped. Nevertheless, this is where there need to be laws around this kind of thing. It should be illegal to delete digital purchases or delete accounts like this, end of story. Consumer protection laws are desperately needed here.
- Farfromthehood 4y agoOh. Just learning about this now. I haven't fired up the quest (or Go) I'm about a year. Suppose I'll probably have to side load whatever's been removed.... Once I eventually fire up the machine again
- leetrout 4y agoThe Go can be unlocked: https://developer.oculus.com/blog/unlocking-oculus-go/ https://developer.oculus.com/blog/unlocking-oculus-go/
- walrus01 4y agoPLEASE DRINK A VERIFICATION CAN https://twitter.com/d4rckh/status/1477397475837325312?t=ox_jDOtJc1VKkAIidrd_zg&s=19 https://twitter.com/d4rckh/status/1477397475837325312?t=ox_j...
- fattybob 4y agoUgh - seems like meta sinks deeper into the cesspit
- jdkee 4y agoFacebook/Meta is a cancer. A cancer that needs to be excised from the human spirit.
- Daveenjay 4y agoFacebook probably needs to increase daily active users for this quarter
- IYasha 4y agoBut... why would one need an accout to use a freakin gadget!? I'm kind of new to this, but isn't VR helmet just a werable display with a few sensors??
- dfgtrfgg 4y agoThis should be illegal, you can’t just take away my account so you can save a little bit of money
- dfgtrfgy 4y ago[dead]