The Meta Quest Pro is a virtual reality headset that costs less than a mortgage payment. It has upgraded hardware, advanced features, and cameras that point inward to track your eyes. Meta made some fun new additions to its privacy policy, including the eye tracking privacy notice. Eye-tracking data will be used to improve Metaquest. The privacy policy doesn't say the company will use the data for marketing, but it does say that they will personalize your experience. Meta executives have been clear about it. In an interview with the Financial Times, Meta's head of global affairs said eye tracking data could be used to understand whether people engage with an advertisement or not. Gizmodo requested comment from Meta, but she didn't reply. This technology takes data collection to a place we have never been before. Tracking your eyes and face will give the company unprecedented insight about your emotions. According to Ray Walsh, a digital privacy researcher at ProPrivacy, this type of information can be used to determine what people are feeling. When you can see a person look at an ad for a watch and wonder if they can afford it, that provides more information than ever before. A lot of technology has been developed by Meta. The company has been experimenting with manipulating people's emotions for more than a decade and filed a patent for a system that "adapts media content" based on facial expressions. It patented a mechanical eye.
Despite the public's privacy concerns about Meta, it may be difficult for people who use the company's products to resist the eye- tracking features.
There will be a stigma attached to denying that data if Meta succeeds. In a virtual room full of people smiling and frowning, you don't want to be the only zombie.
There are no advertisements in the first iteration of the Metaverse. Meta's two-dimensional business model relies on ads so much that they seem inevitable. The company has begun allowing some creators to make money from their time in the game.
Eye-tracking data can be used to figure out what you're thinking about. If you look at an expensive digital fedora for a few seconds, the company will send you a coupon code an hour later. It's possible to measure your emotions and use them to target ads.
Digital marketing involves showing you the right ad at the right time. Walsh suggests that advertisers could build campaigns with content for people who are frustrated or people who are happy.
There are some special regulations that companies need to navigate when they're tracking your actual body, as opposed to snooping on every tap of your fingers on phone, where there aren't many US rules.
Some states have passed laws that regulate data about physical characteristics. Illinois has a Biometric Information Privacy Act that requires companies to get your consent before collecting and processing your data. The privacy law gives individual people the right to file lawsuits against companies that violate it. Enforcement is less likely due to the fact that most other state laws only allow regulators to take action. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been paid to settle BIPA lawsuits.
Meta has a poor record when it comes to privacy. Tens of millions of Facebook users didn't have a privacy setting that allowed them to turn off facial recognition for almost two years before the company fixed the problem. Last year, Meta took an ironic victory when it deleted around a billion face prints from Facebook. There is a shiny new product that will measure the windows to your soul that the company never promised to stop using. What will Meta do with that data after you give it to them?
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