Testing In-Headset VR Ads

Last month we announced

we start testing ads

in the Oculus mobile app to give developers a new way to showcase their VR apps. Today, we're excited to share a preview of the next phase of this exploration: a small test of ads in headsets. The experience will begin with Resolution Games' Blaston and a few other developers rolling out over the next few weeks.

Our primary goal at Facebook Reality Labs (FRL) is to bring more people into VR, advance the consumer experience, and advance our longer-term augmented reality initiatives. We're also exploring new ways for developers to generate revenue. This is key to ensuring the creation of a self-contained platform that can support a variety of business models that unlock new types of content and audiences. It also helps us continue to make innovative AR/VR hardware more accessible to more people.

For now this is a test with a few apps, once we see how this test goes and incorporate feedback from developers and the community we will provide more details on when ads may become more widely available on the Oculus platform and in the Oculus mobile app, as well as guidance for businesses and developers interested in advertising on Oculus. We can't wait to hear what you think, so don't hesitate to contact the

Oculus Support

to share your comments.

Ads are the most effective. when high quality and relevant, for this reason Oculus ads will follow

Facebook Advertising Principles

, the first of which is “build for people first”. It's also important that users can manage the ads they see, so we include controls to hide specific ads or hide an advertiser's ads completely. Users can also access more detailed ad preferences from any ad through our “Why am I seeing this ad?” interface. As our testing progresses, we'll continue to listen to feedback to improve the ads people see.

Points of confidentiality

As with everything FRL builds, our exploration of brand engagement on Oculus is ongoing guided by our

responsible innovation principles

to ensure that we create inclusive and privacy-focused products.

Adding ads to the Oculus Platform does not change our privacy or advertising policies. When testing ads in Oculus apps, Facebook will get new information such as whether you interacted with an ad and, if so, how, for example, if you clicked on the ad for more information or if you hidden advertising. Other than that, this test does not change how your Oculus data is processed or how it informs ads. As a reminder, here is some information about the Oculus data that

are not

used to target advertisements:

We do not use information processed and stored locally on your headset to target advertisements. Processing and storing information on the device means that it does not leave your headset or reach Facebook servers, so it cannot be used for advertising purposes. Examples of data processed on the device include raw sensor images on Quest and images of your hands (if you choose to enable hand tracking), both of which are overwritten instantly. Examples of data stored locally on the device include weight, height, or gender information that you choose to provide to Oculus Move.

We take extra precautions when using motion data, like minimizing what we need. to provide a safe and immersive virtual reality experience, for example, to prevent you from bumping into real-world objects and lowering your avatar while playing a game. We do not intend to use the movement data to target ads.

Finally, we do not use the content of your conversations with people on applications such as Messenger, Parties and chats or your voice interactions to target advertisements. This includes any sound your microphone picks up when you use our voice commands feature, such as “Hey Facebook, show me who's online”.

You can visit the

Privacy Center

at any time to learn more about your Oculus privacy settings and how and where to change them, view your information, download your information, and delete your Oculus data. We will continue to provide tools that give our community transparency, choice and control over how information is used to personalize their experience on Oculus. For more information about our current user controls for ads and the actions you can take today,

Click here

.

More soon

This is a new innovation in the advertising industry, and it is still in its infancy. We are currently investing in stealth ads as a new way for developers to build businesses. While we're not quite ready to test them yet, we're also exploring new VR-specific ad formats.