Meta's New Headset Will Track Your Eyes for Targeted Ads (gizmodo.com) 53
Earlier this week, Meta revealed the Meta Quest Pro, the company's most premium virtual reality headset to date with a new processor and screen, dramatically redesigned body and controllers, and inward-facing cameras for eye and face tracking. "To celebrate the $1,500 headset, Meta made some fun new additions to its privacy policy, including one titled 'Eye Tracking Privacy Notice,'" reports Gizmodo. "The company says it will use eye-tracking data to 'help Meta personalize your experiences and improve Meta Quest.' The policy doesn't literally say the company will use the data for marketing, but 'personalizing your experience' is typical privacy-policy speak for targeted ads." From the report: Eye tracking data could be used "in order to understand whether people engage with an advertisement or not," said Meta's head of global affair Nick Clegg in an interview with the Financial Times. Whether you're resigned to targeted ads or not, this technology takes data collection to a place we've never seen. The Quest Pro isn't just going to inform Meta about what you say you're interested in, tracking your eyes and face will give the company unprecedented insight about your emotions. "We know that this kind of information can be used to determine what people are feeling, especially emotions like happiness or anxiety," said Ray Walsh, a digital privacy researcher at ProPrivacy. "When you can literally see a person look at an ad for a watch, glance for ten seconds, smile, and ponder whether they can afford it, that's providing more information than ever before."
Meta has already developed a ton of technology for these purposes. The company filed a patent for a system that "adapts media content" based on facial expressions back in January, and it has experimented with harnessing and manipulating people's emotions for more than a decade. In January, it patented a mechanical eyeball. Despite the public's privacy concerns about Meta, it may be hard for people who use the company's products to resist activating the eye-tracking features because of what they will allow your avatar to do.
"If Meta is successful, there's going to be a stigma attached with denying that data," ProPrivacy's Walsh said. "You don't want to be the only one looking like an expressionless zombie in a virtual room full of people smiling and frowning." Of course, eye-tracking data could be used to determine what you're thinking about buying. Maybe you spend a few extra seconds glancing at an expensive digital fedora, and the company sends you a coupon code an hour later. But measuring your emotions opens up a whole new arena for targeted ads. Digital marketing is all about showing you the right ad at the right moment. Walsh says advertisers could build campaigns with content specifically designed for people who seem frustrated, or more cheerful ad for people who are in a good mood.
Meta has already developed a ton of technology for these purposes. The company filed a patent for a system that "adapts media content" based on facial expressions back in January, and it has experimented with harnessing and manipulating people's emotions for more than a decade. In January, it patented a mechanical eyeball. Despite the public's privacy concerns about Meta, it may be hard for people who use the company's products to resist activating the eye-tracking features because of what they will allow your avatar to do.
"If Meta is successful, there's going to be a stigma attached with denying that data," ProPrivacy's Walsh said. "You don't want to be the only one looking like an expressionless zombie in a virtual room full of people smiling and frowning." Of course, eye-tracking data could be used to determine what you're thinking about buying. Maybe you spend a few extra seconds glancing at an expensive digital fedora, and the company sends you a coupon code an hour later. But measuring your emotions opens up a whole new arena for targeted ads. Digital marketing is all about showing you the right ad at the right moment. Walsh says advertisers could build campaigns with content specifically designed for people who seem frustrated, or more cheerful ad for people who are in a good mood.
Here we go.... (Score:5, Funny)
Leela: Didn't you have ad's in the 20th century?
Fry: Well sure, but not in our dreams. Only on TV and radio. And in magazines. And movies. And at ball games and on buses and milk cartons and t-shirts and written on the sky. But not in dreams. No siree!
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Leela: Didn't you have ad's in the 20th century?
Fry: Well sure, but not in our dreams. Only on TV and radio. And in magazines. And movies. And at ball games and on buses and milk cartons and t-shirts and written on the sky. But not in dreams. No siree!
Please stop mentioning this. Every time I read about it, I see ads in my dreams for a couple of days...
anal probe (Score:1)
I don't think this headset is good enough, I think a more complete system is in order, they should couple it with a device
like this one [capitalmedicalsupply.ca] or better something like this [etsy.com] and then use the information from these devices combined with the eye movements and possibly a few other sensors connected all over to really give you that amazing feeling of completeness and fulfillment that you are all looking for from mr. Zuckerbot. Imagine combining his lively image in your head with all of the potential of such devices, i
Ya, Fuck Off (Score:2, Insightful)
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Meant to mod underrated derp
not my eyes. (Score:1)
no thanks zuck.
No, Zuckerberg (Score:3)
I'm not giving Mark Zuckerberg money so he can violate my privacy in order to manipulate me into buying more junk at my expense to further stuff his wallet.
Re:No, Zuckerberg (Score:4, Funny)
Same here. Incidentally, I feel the exact same way about Microsoft. And Amazon.
I make an exception for Steam because video games are basically the purpose of human evolution.
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AND GOOGLE. I can't believe I forgot Google.
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I don't play video games, I do however buy on Amazon fairly often, AFAIC Amazon gives me what I am looking for most of the time.
Re: No, Zuckerberg (Score:2)
24 years of my buying history and amazon has not once shown me an add for something that i wanted. It is always garbage.
No it won't. (Score:5, Insightful)
It will not track my eyes, for I would have to purchase and wear one of these in order to do it. That will not be happening at $1500 per unit, so I can walk around in something that looks like a world rendered by the same engine Nintendo used for Wii Sports 15 years ago.
Meta: Go fuck off back to your design studio and try again with something a little less embarrassing.
Re:No it won't. (Score:5, Interesting)
Meta: Go fuck off back to your design studio and try again with something a little less embarrassing.
Or better yet, Meta, don't try again. Just fuck off!
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This.
Re: No it won't. (Score:2)
In 10 years, every physical store shelf will have the eye/emo trackers.
Like your selfie camera does now, you just don't know it's on...
You think you can live "off grid" but still participate in "society".
But can we?
Re: (Score:2)
. . .For Targeted Ads (Score:2)
Of course it does!
What other reason would there be?
New meaning of the phrase Targeted ADs (Score:5, Interesting)
Ads you literally CANNOT look away from.
We will track your eyes and if you have not seen the ad for a long enough period Automatically move the advertisement to ensure it follows your gaze for the specified amount of time you are to see the ad - this way you will No longer be able to automatically avoid checking the ads.
This will be the new Iteration of Popups.. and they'll be worth a ton more per impression, since the platform can actually guarantee the eyeballs saw the ads.
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And your headset can still be useless until it decides you've seen the ad and can now use your expensive device.
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Then the ad will pause, just like it does now when you put its window in the background.
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The next version of this thingy will electrocute you if you steal ad revenue... ugh pardon me, close your eyes for too long.
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Black Mirror already covered that trick.
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This will be the new Iteration of Popups.. and they'll be worth a ton more per impression, since the platform can actually guarantee the eyeballs saw the ads.
With any luck, this will finally push ordinary people over the edge and the entire ad-driven economy goes up in flames.
Hey, one can hope, right?
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A Clockwork Meta (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
I don't know... Zuckerberg does seem like a guy whose face would enjoy a sensation of a bit of the old ultra-violence - with a large, shiny penis.
Now available in gold. [filmandfurniture.com]
Measuring emotions will enable AI... (Score:2)
This way I'll be sure to get (Score:2)
Why do they think everyone'll join the metaverse? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
And certainly not for the privilege of then being annoyed and bothered by crap you don't want to see in it.
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But if you are someone who spends $1500 on a VR headset then you have implicitly identified yourself as a likely profitable ad target. No further targeting calculations required.
Eye trackign is very dangerous (Score:3)
I see this as a risk considerably beyond conventional tracking because of the potential to extract very private information.
The line between useful and detrimental (Score:2)
There is a very fine line between where ads are actually going to influence user behaviour positively, ok, let's rather say, influence them in the way the advertiser wants, and influencing them in the way the advertiser does not want.
An ad that plays, as annoying as it may be, still is not so annoying that you start to hate it. You won't go out of your way to avoid whatever it was trying to sell you. And over time, you might associate that product with something you enjoyed, because it was put into your min
a prison that fits on your head: new "panopticon" (Score:4, Insightful)
Now imagine that instead of just building a watchtower in the center of the circular prison to see your movements, it can see your eyes. And everywhere you look. And it can see those things too. And it fits on your head. And you *paid* for it.
This is the beginning of some true horror. "Orwellian" doesn't even begin to do this justice.
Re: (Score:1)
Anybody who wants this Clockwork Orange crap deserves what they get.
And I only pay $1500 for this? (Score:1)
Meta's VR is farked.
I am NOT... (Score:2)
Watching you watch the world (Score:2)
Advert: "Want to see more Asian cat-women having doggy-position sex on blue birthday cakes? Sign-up now."
saves money (Score:2)
That right there ensures I won't ever be tempted to spend money on this shit. Thanks Zuck, you just saved me a bunch of money I can give to people who aren't assholes.
People hate ads last time I checked (Score:2)
Awesome news (Score:2)
Looker? (Score:2)
Sounds like the premise of that 80s movie, Looker.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
VR in the Pro field. (Score:2)
Patient: "Doctor, doctor, help me, i'm dying!"
Doctor:"I need to finish watching the ads."
15 million merits (Score:2)
Do they have a death wish? (Score:1)
Slashdot needs a clue (Score:2)
Dear Slashdot, stop trying to get me to subscribe to your feed. *I* will decide when I want to read the site. It's bad enough that the ad stream has a creepy been-tracked feel to it.
Advertising (Score:2)
Sorry, but with the hardware price tag, I'd better NEVER see an ad in that thing. So glad I'm buying in to the stupid hype and avoiding Meta like the plague.
As for Advertising in general, people are so sick of it, you'd be better spent putting out ads for your competitors to drive customers away from them to you....
Ain't nothing new! (Score:2)