Sen. Al Franken raises concerns over Oculus Rift privacy policy

The Rift makes its Capitol Hill debut

By Allegra Frank

Senator Al Franken of Minnesota issued an open letter to Oculus yesterday, questioning the company on how and why it collects data from users of its Rift headset.

“Oculus’ creation of an immersive virtual reality experience is an exciting development, but it remains important to understand the extent to which Oculus may be collecting Americans personal information, including sensitive location data, and sharing that information with third parties,” Franken wrote. This refers to the privacy policy included on the Oculus website, which details the various types of data collected by Rift users and the channels that have access to this information — such as third party sources.