Since it joined Facebook in 2014, people have had concerns that Rift maker Oculus might become a tool for data mining and digging up deeper, more sensitive points about a user’s private life. Now with the introduction of Dash, a new feature for Oculus users that allows them to use desktop apps inside of VR, some of those concerns have resurfaced. Oculus’ Jason Rubin says not to worry.
In an interview with Gamespot, Rubin, who serves of VP of Content at the company, said that Oculus wasn’t building Dash to collect people’s private information.
“The answer is, we’re all doing what we’re doing because it works,” Rubin stated, pointing out that all other VR companies use camera-based systems similar to Oculus, which could, in theory, be used to gather information on users. “Nobody wants user camera information for anything.”
He noted that these sorts of questions were best pointed at Facebook itself, reassuring that Dash wasn’t designed for data mining. “I can tell you that is not why we’re doing Dash,” he said. “We’re doing Dash because it’s awesome. You get in Elite Dangerous, you’re flying across the galaxy, it takes forever so you put on Spotify, throw up your music, throw some emails in. It’s the future.”
Dash will arrive in beta form for users later this year. It features a retooled user interface that allows users to quickly jump from app-to-app and, as mentioned summon your traditional desktop applications from within VR, so you can take a minute to search the internet or, yes, check Facebook from within VR.
