---
title: "Hidden Messages Suggest That Facebook Sees User Privacy as a Joke"
description: "Facebook-owned virtual reality company Oculus just shipped tens of thousands of Touch controllers bearing hidden messages."
date: "2019-04-13"
modified: "2019-04-13"
authors:
  - name: "Kristin Houser"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/kristin"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/oculus-hidden-messages-facebook-privacy"
categories:
  - "Future Society"
  - "Privacy"
tags:
  - "facebook"
  - "oculus"
  - "privacy"
  - "the digest"
---

# Hidden Messages Suggest That Facebook Sees User Privacy as a Joke

![Facebook-owned virtual reality company Oculus just shipped tens of thousands of Touch controllers bearing hidden messages.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/oculus-hidden-messages-facebook-privacy.png>)
*\<em\>Image: Tag Hartman-Simkins\</em\>*

## Ha Ha Ha

Facebook-owned virtual reality company Oculus just [shipped tens of thousands](<https://mashable.com/article/facebook-oculus-touch-hidden-messages/#kzP5MCUgqGqF>) of Touch controllers bearing hidden messages — which suggest the company thinks user privacy is a laughing matter.

On Friday, Oculus executive Nate Mitchell shared a series of tweets noting that "Easter egg" labels meant for prototypes of the controllers made it into consumer units. Other labels, also meant for prototypes, shipped with developer kits.

https://twitter.com/natemitchell/status/1116757807200497664

https://twitter.com/natemitchell/status/1116757809322790912

## Internal Messaging

The labels include "Big Brother is Watching" — a "joke" seemingly making light of [comparisons](<https://thenextweb.com/contributors/2018/01/29/big-brother-name-facebook/>) between Facebook and the all-seeing entity at the heart of George Orwell's dystopian novel "Nineteen Eighty-Four."

The messages appear on the controllers' "flex," which Facebook representative Johanna Peace [told *Business Insider*](<https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-weird-messages-oculus-touch-controllers-2019-4>) is "an internal flexible component of the Touch controllers," meaning most users will never see the messages — though just knowing they're there is unsettling enough.

**READ MORE:** [Facebook accidentally put hidden messages like 'Big Brother is Watching' and 'The Masons Were Here' in 'tens of thousands' of VR controllers](<https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-weird-messages-oculus-touch-controllers-2019-4>) \[*Business Insider*\]

**More on Facebook:** *[Mark Zuckerberg Insists That Facebook Promotes Privacy](<https://futurism.com/mark-zuckerberg-facebook-promotes-privacy>)*

### Author social links  
[LinkedIn](<https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristinjhouser>)