Let's all complain to Oculus about our privacy violations (and stutters offline)!

[TAW_Impalor]

Hi. I've been researching stutters on my PC when my Internet connection is slow or disabled, and I discovered the culprit being OVRServer_x64.exe process. It runs all the time snooping on us and posting data to Facebook servers. Just run a Process Monitor to see for yourself. In the attached screen Oculus goes through my Steam games folder to learn what to market me in their Home.

 

When there is no Internet connection OVRServer_x64.exe starts writing incessant errors into a .txt log file, slowing down my PC (screen 2). I looked at this log file and further learned that despite I disabled posting my status and any info online Facebook still collects such data:

 

22/08 16:20:10.300 {DEBUG} [FBNS Manager] Notification received: {"unread_count":0,"target_uid":2085425651782255,"time":1534947581,"type":"oculus_user_status","message":"","params":{"extra_data":"{"user_with_updated_status":"2085425651782255","presence":"Online","app_id":null,"friend_display_name":"First name Surname"}","PushNotifID":"fb8feb98-e428-fc08-5031-52a1a03506bc","persisted_id":""},"is_logged_out_push":false}

 

"First name Surname" is what I entered in my "First name" and "Surname" fields on setup.

 

I closed my Facebook account a while ago due to privacy violations, but they are still doing it to me via this supposedly hardware product!

 

I've been in touch with support for weeks, but they pretend to not understand what I am talking about and just pass me to the next guy. They say OVRServer_x64.exe is "integral part to give me a VR picture in the headset bla bla bla", but I am not an idiot. Maybe if we all write our complaints about this process they will make it not interfere with live games. Let it run in the background when Oculus Home is NOT running (so we can kill it after bootup), but go to sleep mode otherwise.

 

Sorry for long read, had to vent my anger ))

Edited August 22, 2018 by impalor

[dburne]

You can stop the Oculus service from running anytime you are not using the Rift.

Unfortunately not much you can do whist you are using it.

[rrohde]

That's actually a really big deal for everyone who values their privacy. This reminds me about how much I hated the fact that facebook bought Oculus at the time.

 

I will see if OTT (Oculus Tray Tool) has a way to terminate that process after it closes Oculus services after shutting down OTT. Does anybody have any other approach to automatically kill that process when done using VR?

 

Here's hope that other VR headset manufacturer won't violate peple's privacy in that vein; once a equal (or better) headset comes around that's not part of facebook's business practice, I'll jump ship.

Edited August 22, 2018 by rrohde

[dburne]

That's actually a really big deal for everyone who values their privacy. This reminds me about how much I hated the fact that facebook bought Oculus at the time.

 

I will see if OTT (Oculus Tray Tool) has a way to terminate that process after it closes Oculus services after shutting down OTT. Does anybody have any other approach to automatically kill that process when done using VR?

 

Here's hope that other VR headset manufacturer won't violate peple's privacy in that vein; once a equal (or better) headset comes around that's not part of facebook's business practice, I'll jump ship.

 

You can use Oculus Tray Tool to shut down the Oculus Service (it is in the service and startup tab).

There is also an option to " stop Oculus service" when OTT closes, and "start Oculus Service" when OTT starts.

Edited August 22, 2018 by dburne

[TAW_Impalor]

Sure, I shutdown all Oculus services immediately after boot, but must restart them to fly DCS. And I surely will choose another manufacturer for upgrade.

[Thick8]

When Facebook bought Oculus I knew I would never own a Rift. I want nothing to do with that company.

[Aries144]

WTF?! I don't want to deal with that. Screw those controlling sacks of human waste.

[TAW_Impalor]

Does anybody have any other approach to automatically kill that process when done using VR?

 

I run a .cmd with these lines on boot and after exiting VR:

 

NIRCMDC closeprocess OculusClient.exe

net stop OVRService

NIRCMDC closeprocess OVRServiceLauncher.exe

NIRCMDC closeprocess OVRServer_x64.exe

 

using free soft from here http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/nircmd.html

 

OTT does not kill the spyware OVRServer_x64.exe, it only stops OVRService

[etherbattx]

are you sure the remaining apps don’t collect or send data?

[TAW_Impalor]

no, but I keep an eye on what is running in the background and stick with Windows 7