Manage website permissions for immersive web experiences in Browser on Meta Quest
When starting an immersive web experience in Browser, you can choose to allow or block individual websites’ access to your hand and body tracking or spatial data.
Remember, Meta does not control how third party websites use, store, or share your data once hand tracking or spatial data permissions are granted, so you should only allow access to this data on websites that you trust.
Managing website permissions
You will receive a notice when you use Browser to visit a website that requests access to spatial or hand and body tracking data. From the notice, you can decline or approve the permission request. To review or revoke permissions that have been given to a website:
- From Browser, navigate to the website that you would like to view or edit permissions for.
- To the left of the address bar, select the green lock icon.
- Browse the list of granted permissions and adjust the dropdown to the right of each permission. You can choose between Allow and Don’t allow.
Removing permissions does not delete or modify any data that a third-party website has already accessed.
Headset cameras permission in Browser
The headset cameras permission allows a website to access the real-time passthrough camera feed from the front of your headset. The real-time camera passthrough feed includes everything you see in passthrough without any virtual objects or windows that may appear to be blocking the real environment. If you choose to share camera data with a website, that website’s policies apply.
What headset camera data is shared with websites?
Some examples of how apps may use your camera feed include:
- Object recognition. Developers can create websites that recognise and use specific objects within your real-environment. For example, a digital board game that incorporates physical game pieces or boards.
- Location recognition. Developers can create experiences that respond differently depending on where the camera feed shows you are located . For example, indoors or outdoors, at a famous landmark, or in a specific type of room.
- Other machine learning functionality. Developers are able to run custom machine learning models against data from the real-time camera feed. This could be used for retexturing/shading, games involving participants who are not wearing headsets, person/animal detection, or any number of custom industrial/training use-cases.
As well as access to the real-time camera feed, websites that have been given headset camera permission will also receive relevant metadata. This includes camera focal length, principal point, image dimensions and camera position relative to center of device.
Only a single website can access camera data at any time. If you minimize a Browser window that’s using your camera, camera data will stop being provided until you reopen that window. If you close a window that’s using your camera, camera data will stop being provided altogether.
Virtual cameras permission in Browser
The virtual cameras permission allows a website to take photos and videos of your avatar and the app or world you’re in. This makes certain features work, like using your avatar in video calls or recording different angles when playing a game.
This is typically used for:
- Calling. Join a Zoom call in VR and have other participants see your avatar and home environment on their screen.
- Action replays. Games and apps can use the virtual camera to capture and playback footage of your best moments from a third-person perspective.
- VR selfies. Taking photographs of your avatar in different virtual environments.
What virtual camera data is shared with websites?
The virtual camera will never capture your real-world environment through the headset’s passthrough cameras. Virtual camera will see your immersive 3D environment when passthrough is turned off. When passthrough is on, any video captured by the virtual camera will show your avatar against a black background.
Spatial data
Spatial data refers to the information collected about the size, shape, and location of walls, surfaces, and objects in a physical space. Immersive web experiences that blend virtual and real-world environments use spatial data to understand the space around you and where you are within that space. You will receive a notice when you visit a website that requests access to spatial data, and you can decline the request. Learn more about spatial data.
What spatial data is shared with websites?
When you give a website permission to access your spatial data, you are giving access to:
- Scene data: Used to create a simplified model of a room and enables more physical awareness of a user’s surroundings. Without scene data, virtual objects cannot interact with physical objects.
- Mesh data:This allows the headset to understand the shape and structure of objects in a physical space. Without mesh data, virtual objects are not able to realistically interact with physical environments. Mesh data is only available on Quest 3 and Quest 3S headsets.
- Depth data: A rough approximation of the distance of real world objects from the headset. Websites can use this depth data to occlude graphics behind real world objects and render virtual objects in a way that feels three-dimensional. Depth data is only available on Meta Quest 3 and Quest 3S headsets.
When starting an immersive web experience in Browser, you can choose to allow or block individual websites’ access to your hand and body tracking or spatial data. Remember, Meta does not control how third party websites use, store, or share your data once hand tracking or spatial data permissions are granted, so you should only allow access to this data on websites that you trust.
Hand and body tracking data
Hand and body tracking is a feature for Meta Quest devices that allows you to switch between hands and controllers to interact with content in your headset. You have the choice to turn hand and body tracking on and off in Settings. Learn more about hand and body tracking.
What hand and body tracking data is shared with websites?
When you enable hand and body tracking and visit a third party immersive website that supports hand tracking features, your hand pose data and your estimated hand size may be shared with the website to improve your experience. You will receive a notice when you visit a website that requests access to hand and body data, and you can decline the request.
When using hand input on non-immersive (2D) websites that do not request access to hand and body tracking features, your hand pose data and estimated hand size are not shared with the website.