Last Updated: October 11, 2020
This Privacy Policy applies to you if you use an Oculus Account to access Oculus Products. If you use your Facebook Account to access Oculus Products, please visit the Supplemental Oculus Data Policy to learn about how we collect, use, and share your information. Please visit our Frequently Asked Questions about merging your accounts for more information.
Facebook offers virtual, mixed, and augmented reality ("XR") hardware and software products and operates a platform under the Oculus brand where users can download, interact with, and submit content and obtain services related to or in connection with our XR products (collectively, the “Oculus Products”). We describe our Oculus Products including our websites, mobile apps, platform, content, hardware, services, and any product or service that links to this Oculus Privacy Policy—in our Oculus Terms of Service. This Privacy Policy explains how we treat information from or about you, including how we collect, use, and share information on our Oculus Products.
1. What kind of information do we collect?
Depending on which Oculus Products you use, we must process different kinds of information from or about you. Here’s how:
- Information You (and others) Give Us. We collect the information you (and others) give us when using Oculus Products. For example:
- When you register to use Oculus Products, we ask for information such as your name, email address, and phone number.
- You will have the ability to add information to your profile after registration.
- If you update your profile with payment information or buy something on or through our Oculus Products, we collect information about the transaction, including your payment information, purchase activity, and shipping and contact details.
- We collect information about the people, content, and experiences you connect to and how you interact with them across our Oculus Products.
- When you post, share or communicate with us or other Oculus users on our Oculus Products, we receive and store those communications and information associated with them, such as the date a post was created.
- When you communicate with us, you provide us with information like your email address.
- Depending on which Oculus services you use, you have the option of submitting information about your physical features and dimensions.
- We collect content you create using Oculus Products, such as your avatar, a picture you post, or an object you sculpt, and information about this content, such as the date and time you created the content.
- We also collect content and information that other people provide when they use Oculus Products. This can include information about you, like when they send us an abuse report that refers to or contains video of you.
- Information Automatically Collected About You When You Use Oculus Products. We also collect information automatically when you are connected to the Oculus Products. Depending on how you access and use Oculus Products, we collect information such as:
- Information about your interactions with Oculus Products, like information about the people, games, content, apps, features, or other experiences you interact with, including information collected through or from content provided by our third-party partners. For example, we receive information about in-app purchases you have made in a game provided by a third-party developer;
- Information collected in or through cookies, local storage, pixels, and similar technologies (additional information about these technologies is available at https://www.oculus.com/legal/cookies-pixels-and-other-technologies/);
- Information about how you access our Oculus Products, including information about the type of device you're using (such as a headset, PC, TV, mobile, or other connected device), its configuration (such as your operating system and graphics processing unit), your browser, Internet Protocol ("IP") address, and how your device is performing;
- Information about the features you interact with on the Oculus Products. For example, we receive information about your Oculus Browser usage, such as interactions with recommended pages, which browser features you use, crash reporting data, and other statistics related to your Oculus Browser. When you use our voice services, we process your voice interactions to respond to your request, provide the requested service to you, and improve our voice services. You can learn more about how we collect and use information from other features you interact with on the Oculus Products in our Oculus Privacy FAQ;
- Certain identifiers that are unique to you. These identifiers include device and other identifiers, such as those from games and apps you use;
- Information about the games, content, or other apps installed on your device or provided through the Oculus Products, including from third parties;
- Location-related information, which can be derived from information such as your device’s IP address. If you’re using a mobile device, some of our Oculus Products collect information about the device’s precise location, which is derived from sources such as the device’s GPS signal and information about nearby Wi-Fi networks and cell towers;
- Information about your environment, physical movements, and dimensions when you use an XR device. For example, when you set up the Oculus Guardian System to alert you when you approach a boundary, we receive information about the play area that you have defined; and when you enable the hand tracking feature, we collect technical information like your estimated hand size and hand movement data to enable this feature.
- Information we receive through device settings you choose, such as your photos or audio content.
- Technical system information such as crash logs which may contain your user ID, device ID, IP address, local computer file path, feature quality, amount of time it takes to load a feature, and whether you use a certain feature.
- Information From Related Companies and Third Parties. We also receive information about you from the Facebook Companies and third parties:
- We receive information about you from the Facebook Companies to promote safety, integrity and security across the Facebook Company Products.
- We also receive information about you from third parties, including third-party apps, developers, other online content providers, and marketing partners that provide us information. For example, we receive information from developers about your achievements in their app and share that information with your friends on Oculus.
You can learn how to access, correct, and delete information we collect by visiting the Privacy Center.
2. How do we use information?
We use the information as set out below and to provide our Oculus Products to you and our partners. Here’s how:
- To provide and personalize our Oculus Products. We use the information we collect to provide you with our Oculus Products. For example, we use this information to:
- Provide you with hardware, content, games, apps, and other experiences;
- Create accounts and user profiles;
- Communicate with you about our Oculus Products;
- Enable certain features, such as hand tracking and voice services;
- Enable user-to-user communications and other related services;
- Provide technical support;
- Notify you about updates to our Oculus Products; and
- Customize your experiences on our Oculus Products based on your activities, including the content, games, apps, and other experiences you interact with, the other online services you use, and other information we collect. This allows us to make your experience unique and relevant to you, for example by showing you content that is most relevant to you.
- To improve and develop your experience and our Oculus Products. We also use the information we collect to understand and improve our Oculus Products and to develop the XR ecosystem. For example, we use the information to:
- Solicit and analyze input and feedback about our Oculus Products;
- Identify and address technical issues on our Oculus Products;
- Conduct and learn from research about the ways in which people use our Oculus Products;
- Improve services offered by others, such as third parties that offer content, games, apps and other experiences on our Oculus Products; and
- Improve and develop our features, such as voice services and hand tracking. For example, for voice services, we analyze and review your voice commands using human and machine processes to improve, troubleshoot, and train our speech recognition systems. For hand tracking, we collect technical information like hand tracking quality, the amount of time it takes to detect your hands, and the number of pinches you make to improve and troubleshoot this feature.
- To market to you. We use the information we collect to send you promotional messages and content about Oculus Products and Oculus-related experiences on and off our Oculus Products. We also use this information to measure how users respond to our marketing efforts. If you would like to opt out of receiving marketing emails, please visit the Privacy Center.
- To promote safety, integrity and security. We use the information we collect to verify accounts and activity, combat harmful conduct, detect and prevent bad experiences, maintain the integrity of our Oculus Products, and promote safety and security on and off our Oculus Products. For example, we use information collected to investigate suspicious activity or violations of our terms or policies, detect when someone needs help, and protect our or others’ rights or property.
3. How is information shared?
Our Oculus Products help you engage with the XR ecosystem and others that interact with it. To provide and support our Oculus Products, information we have about you is shared in certain circumstances. Here is who can see information about you when you and others use our Oculus Products.
- People and accounts you share and communicate with on our Oculus Products. When you share, interact, and communicate using our Oculus Products, you choose the audience for what you share. For example, when you share a photo or other content in a shared or public virtual space, other people who visit the space may be able to see it.
- Public Information. Certain information you post to your Oculus profile, such as your Oculus ID (also known as your Oculus Username), and avatar, will be public and visible to people on and off our Oculus Products. Your Oculus ID is a unique identifier you choose to identify yourself on our Oculus Products.
Information you post to public areas of our Oculus Products, such as a forum, blog, or other community tool, will also be visible to people on and off our Oculus Products. If you post information to these interactive features, it will be publicly available. Certain information associated with your public posts, such as the time of your post, also will be published and publicly available. - Content others share about you. You should consider who you choose to share with, because people who are able to see your activity, content, or information on our Oculus Products may choose to share it with others on and off our Oculus Products. For example, when you interact with others in a multiplayer game, another player could choose to livestream that experience – including what you are doing in the game – to Facebook. People may also use Oculus Products to share content about you they have obtained from other sources.
- Apps, Developers, and Other Online Content Providers on our Oculus Products. You can interact with third-party content, games, apps, and other experiences through our Oculus Products. We share information about you with these partners so they can provide you with the experiences you've requested, such as:
- Information in your Oculus profile and about how you use our Oculus Products. For example, we make available to third party developers a list of your friends who also use the developer’s app so they can offer to pair you in a game or other experience within their app, or rank your scores and achievements in that app against your friends’ scores and achievements. We also share information about individual abuse reports or abuse statistics on our Oculus Products, so we can help develop a safe and enjoyable XR ecosystem.
- Information about your interaction with the third-party service, such as how long you have interacted with content.
- Any other information you choose to share with the third party.
Third-party content providers may also collect information from you directly through the experiences they provide. Please note that any information you share with these (or other) third parties will be subject to those third parties’ own privacy policies, not this one. - Sharing Within Related Companies. We share information with related companies, including the Facebook Companies, depending on which services you use, including to promote safety, integrity and security across the Facebook Company Products. For example, if you buy something on or through the Oculus Products, we share your information with Facebook Technologies, LLC to process your payment and detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud, security, or technical issues in accordance with the Oculus Store Terms. We also share information with Facebook Technologies, LLC and Facebook Technologies Ireland Limited to conduct and support research and innovation to further the state of the art or academic understanding of XR technology.
- Service providers. We share the information we collect with vendors, service providers, researchers and other partners, who work at our direction to support the Oculus Products (such as hosting our Oculus Products, fulfilling orders, facilitating payments, analyzing the way people use our Oculus Products, processing credit card payments, providing customer service, or sending electronic communications for us). For example, we share recordings and transcripts of your voice interactions with vendors and service providers who assist us in improving, troubleshooting, and training our speech recognition systems.
- Other parties in connection with certain business transactions. In the event that the ownership of Facebook (or any portion of our assets) changes as a result of a merger, acquisition, or in the event of a bankruptcy, information from or about you or your device will be transferred to another company.
- Permission. We share your information for any other purpose you choose.
- Law enforcement or legal requests. We share information with law enforcement or in response to legal requests in the circumstances outlined in Section 7 below.
We also share de-identified or aggregate data with others. De-identified data means information where we have removed your name and other data that could reasonably be used to identify you. Aggregate data is data that has been combined with other data so that it doesn’t identify any specific person. For example, we provide developers with aggregated statistics about the number of people from a particular region that use our Oculus Products, so developers can create content tailored for people in that market.
4. How the Facebook Companies work together
We share infrastructure, systems and technology with the Facebook Companies (which include Instagram and WhatsApp) to provide an innovative, relevant, consistent and safe experience across all Facebook Company Products you use. We also process information about you across the Facebook Companies for these purposes, as permitted by applicable law and in accordance with their terms and policies. For example, we use information about bad actors on Oculus to fight spam or abuse on other Facebook Company Products like Instagram. We also work to understand how people use and interact with Facebook Company Products, like understanding the number of unique users on different Facebook Company Products.
5. Third Parties that Provide Content, Marketing, or Functionality on Our Services
Some of the content, marketing, and functionality on our Oculus Products is provided by third parties that are not affiliated with us. For example, we work with companies that help us understand how people use our Oculus Products.
Other companies may collect information on or through our Oculus Products to market to you on or off of our Oculus Products. These and other third parties may collect information about your use of our Oculus Products, including through the use of cookies, device IDs, local storage, pixels and other technologies, and this information may be collected over time and combined with information collected on different websites and online services.
6. Data retention and deletion
We store Oculus data that identifies you until it is no longer necessary to provide our Oculus Products or your Oculus account is deleted, whichever comes first, unless retention of the data for a longer period is justified in order to comply with law or recordkeeping obligations, to respond to a legal request, prevent harm, or to improve our safety, integrity and security features. This is a case-by-case determination that depends on things like the nature of the data, why it is collected and processed, and relevant legal, integrity or operational retention needs. For example, we retain certain purchase information for accounting and tax purposes even after you have deleted your account.
When you delete your account, we delete things you have posted and information about apps and entitlements you have downloaded, and you will not be able to recover that information later. Information that others have shared about you is not part of your account and will not be deleted when you delete your account. To delete your account at any time, or to learn more about deleting your account, please visit the Privacy Center.
7. How do we respond to legal requests and prevent harm?
We access, preserve and share information with regulators, law enforcement or others:
- In response to a legal request (like a search warrant, court order or subpoena), if we have a good faith belief that the law requires us to do so. This includes responding to legal requests from jurisdictions outside of the United States where we have a good faith belief that the response is required by law in that jurisdiction, affects users in that jurisdiction, and is consistent with internationally recognized standards.
Information we receive about you, including financial transaction data related to purchases made on or through our Oculus Products, can be accessed, processed and retained for an extended period when it is the subject of a legal request or obligation, governmental investigation, or investigations concerning possible violations of our terms or policies, or otherwise to prevent harm. We also retain information from Oculus accounts disabled for violations of our terms for at least a year to prevent repeat abuse or other term violations.
8. How we operate and transfer data as part of our global services
We share information globally, both internally within the Facebook Companies, and externally with our partners and with those you connect and share with around the world. Your information may, for example, be transferred or transmitted to, or stored and processed in the United States or other countries outside of where you live for the purposes described in this policy.
9. How will we notify you of changes to this policy?
If we make changes to this Privacy Policy, we will provide notice of such changes as appropriate, such as by sending you an email notification to the address you’ve provided, and/or providing notice through the Oculus Products. If we make an administrative change, we will update the "Last Updated" date at the top of this Privacy Policy.
10. Contacting Us
Facebook Inc. is responsible for your information. If you have questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us online or by email at privacy@support.oculus.com.
11. Privacy Notice for California Residents
If you are a California resident, you can learn more about your consumer privacy rights by reviewing the California Privacy Notice.