14 DAY TRIAL // When Facebook’s acquisition of the Oculus Rift virtual technology was announced, many original backers of the concept reacted negatively regarding the fact that users’ privacy could be affected by the way the device might be used in the future.
John Carmack, the chief technology officer working on the tech, explains in the comments of a blog post on the issue that, “I’m not a ‘privacy is gone, get over it’ sort of person, and I fully support people that want remain unobserved, but that means disengaging from many opportunities. The idea that companies are supposed to interact with you and not pay attention has never seemed sane to me.”
The legendary video game developer believes that those who use social platforms should expect to see some of their info used by the companies that maintain them.
He also believes that in the future companies will collect even more data from their users and that opting out is less important than finding a way to make sure that it is used well.
Carmack adds, “Everyone cheers the novel creative insight and bold leadership that leads to some successes, and tut tuts about companies ending up poorly by blindly following data, but cold analysis of the data is incredibly important, and I tend to think the world will be improved with more and better data analysis.”
Facebook bought Oculus Rift for 2 billion dollars (1.55 billion Euro), in both cash and stock, earlier during the month.
The two companies are saying that the virtual reality headset will continue to be developed mainly for gaming purposes for the foreseeable future, in order for the Oculus Rift creators to fulfill their promises to Kickstarter backers.
Facebook also plans to enhance the tech and use it in order to improve the way users of the social platform interact with one another in certain situations.
A second developer kit version of the Oculus Rift has been revealed during the Game Developers Conference and the plan is to deliver a full consumer package before the end of the year.
The headset will only be offered on the PC.
Sony has already announced that it is working on a prototype called Project Morpheus, which will offer the same kind of experience on the PlayStation 4.
Rumors also suggest that Microsoft is trying to create a similar solution for the Xbox One in order to stay competitive in the virtual reality space.