Working Together to Protect People’s Privacy

Protecting the privacy of people who use our products is an ongoing commitment we share with all of you, our developer partners who build experiences on the Oculus platform—and it’s critical to maintaining a safe and thriving developer ecosystem. Together, we need to deliver a safe ecosystem that users can trust—one that they’ll feel confident investing in over the long term.

In order to continue offering a safe and secure platform, we're launching a few new developer requirements related to the Oculus Data Use Policy: Privacy VRCs and the Data Protection Assessment program. In addition to Data Use Checkup, which launched last year, these initiatives enhance privacy and data security protections and clarify requirements for accessing the Oculus platform features.

Last year, we announced Data Use Checkup, an Oculus developer certification process to confirm your access to platform features and data use complies with the Oculus Developer Data Use Policy. As a reminder, all apps that request access to Oculus User Data via Oculus platform features will need to complete Data Use Checkup by October 1, 2021 and renew this certification annually to maintain access to Oculus platform features. Detailed instructions on how to complete Data Use Checkup can be found here.

If you previously completed Data Use Checkup and are due to recertify, you’ll receive an email notification and alert on the developer dashboard that indicates your deadline for completion. Apps that don’t complete the certification before their deadline will lose access to the relevant Oculus platform features.

We’re taking a closer look at every app’s privacy policy to make sure they're in line with the Oculus Developer Data Use Policy and introducing new privacy VRCs that will be required for all apps on the Oculus platform. All privacy policies should include:

If changes to your privacy policy are needed, the admin of your organization will receive an email and notification in your developer dashboard asking you to update your link or policy by a specified deadline. Apps that haven’t made the necessary updates by the deadline will be removed from the Oculus Store or App Lab until the changes are made.

We're also introducing the Data Protection Assessment as part of our on-going efforts to protect the data that people have shared with us.

If your app accesses certain platform features—specifically, In-App Purchase, Subscriptions, Friends, Deep Linking, Matchmaking, and Invites—a Data Protection Assessment request will be sent via email to Admins of your Organization. The email will include a link to the questionnaire and the required completion date.

Features that access a users' most sensitive data, like the platform features above, come with a higher level of review. In the situations where your app is receiving this level of access, we may request a more detailed Data Protection Assessment. When necessary, that request will go to the Admins of your Organization via email. To prepare for the assessment, review the Oculus Developer Data Use Policy and gather relevant documentation like your privacy policy, security certificates, and data deletion flows. This is a great time to ensure that the admins of your organization have valid email addresses and are the right people to be contacted.

Should you receive this email, please prioritize filling out the questionnaire. The assessment will ask a number of questions related to your data use and sharing, privacy policies, and data security.

Completion of the Data Protection Assessment is required in order to maintain your app listing in the Oculus Store or App Lab and your access to certain platform features.

We’re committed to working together to protect people’s privacy and believe these steps—new privacy VRCs, Data Use Checkup, and Data Protection Assessment—will contribute to a safer, more sustainable platform. Thank you for completing these privacy measures and helping to strengthen trust among our shared community.