Meta’s New VR Headset Will Track Emotions Using Eye Movements For Targeting Ads

Meta this week unveiled its newest VR headset -- Meta Quest Pro -- which is state-of-the-art offering much-needed upgrades to help us experience the metaverse in the best possible way.

Meta

However, a report by Gizmodo has highlighted that Meta has made sure it retains its meta-ness -- its notorious habit of ‘personalising user experience’, which is basically tracking all your user data -- by tracking your eye movements and emotions to target ads.?

The report spotted this in its privacy policy under ‘Eye Tracking Privacy Notice’ where it claimed that it will allow “Meta personalise your experiences and improve Meta Quest”.?

This has also been agreed by Meta’s head of global affairs, Nick Clegg in a conversation with the Financial Times. He revealed that this will help them “understand whether people engage with an advertisement or not.”

Regardless of the fact that you’re okay with sharing your data for ads, the data collection capabilities on the Quest Pro definitely are at an entirely different level. The eye tracking feature will not just inform Meta about what you’re interested in, it will also offer unprecedented data on your emotions -- whether a particular ad brings you happiness, excitement, anxiety or anger -- our eyes can clearly reveal this.

Ray Walsh, a digital privacy researcher at ProPrivacy said in a statement to Gizmodo that these sensors will be able to literally see an individual look at an ad for a watch, glance at it for ten seconds, smile and think if this is something they can afford. No other medium has offered such a level of personal information

Reuters

And sadly no matter how much one would feel like disabling the eye-tracking feature, it is that feature that is one of the reasons for picking the Quest Pro. The sensors allow your avatar to feel a lot more organic, literally transferring realistic expressions from your face to your digital avatar.

Just when you think user privacy is breaching its limits, humanity and tech companies like Meta find new ways to breach even deeper, pushing us even closer to a world where user privacy is nothing but a myth.

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