Natural Facial Expressions Privacy Notice

Effective April 5, 2024

Natural Facial Expressions is a feature on your Meta Quest Pro headset (also called your Meta Quest Pro device) that uses cameras to estimate how your face is moving. This feature is used to make your avatar’s expressions look more natural by detecting your facial movements and mirroring them. Natural Facial Expressions is not used to identify you. You can turn Natural Facial Expressions on and off in Settings and control which apps can access this feature on your Meta Quest Pro headset.

When Natural Facial Expressions is Enabled

When you choose to enable Natural Facial Expressions on the headset or in a specific app, software on the Meta Quest Pro headset analyzes images of your face (“raw image data”) to create an estimate of how your face is moving, producing a set of generic facial expressions, like a broad smile or frown, (“abstracted facial expressions data”) that animate your avatar. This estimation is done on your device in real time as your face moves. The raw image data is deleted from your headset after the abstracted facial expressions data is generated. The abstracted facial expressions data is processed on your headset or Meta servers (e.g., the data may be processed on Meta servers to animate your avatar’s facial movements in a multiplayer scenario), and continuously generated and overwritten in real time as it provides this feature. If you also enable eye tracking, your headset will process data about where you are looking to make your avatar’s eyes more expressive (e.g., mirroring your eyelid movement). If you enable your microphone, your headset will process your audio data to animate your avatar’s lip and face movement.

If another person uses your account on your Meta Quest Pro when you have enabled Natural Facial Expressions, the raw image data and abstracted facial expressions data (collectively, “Natural Facial Expressions data”) from such person may also be processed unless they turn off the feature. You can permit other people to use the feature through your account only if they have enabled it through their accounts or if you are their legally authorized representative.

For the Device

To enable this feature on the device, navigate to Settings, select Movement tracking, and select Natural Facial Expressions. Toggle Natural Facial Expressions on to enable it. You can disable Natural Facial Expressions at any time by toggling the feature off across the device and all apps in Settings. You can also temporarily pause Natural Facial Expressions across the device and all apps in Quick Actions anytime.

For Apps

Additionally, you control which apps can use Natural Facial Expressions. To enable or disable Natural Facial Expressions for a specific app, navigate to Settings, select Apps, and select Installed Apps. After selecting the relevant app, toggle Natural Facial Expressions on or off. If Natural Facial Expressions is not enabled on the device, it cannot be enabled for any app. You can also temporarily pause Natural Facial Expressions across the device and all apps in Quick Actions anytime.

Natural Facial Expressions Function

If you choose to enable Natural Facial Expressions, the raw image data is processed in real time on your headset and deleted once processing is completed. We do not collect or store raw image data from the Natural Facial Expressions feature on Meta servers. The abstracted facial expressions data is generated in real time on your headset, and processed on device or Meta servers to animate your avatar’s facial expressions. For example, if you choose to give an app offered by Meta access to your Natural Facial Expressions data, the abstracted facial expressions data may be processed on Meta servers in order to animate your avatar’s facial movement in a multiplayer scenario.

We collect and retain certain data about your interactions with Natural Facial Expressions as required for the feature to work properly and to provide the feature, consistent with our Privacy Policy. For example, we collect and retain information about how the headset fit affects the quality of detected facial movements or how much time it takes to detect your facial movements. If you have chosen to share additional data with Meta, we collect additional data about how you use your headset (including Natural Facial Expressions) to help Meta personalize your experiences and improve Meta Quest. Learn more. Data sent to and stored on our servers will be disassociated from your account when we no longer need it to provide the service or improve the Natural Facial Expressions feature. If you delete your account, the data associated with your account will be deleted or disassociated from your account.

Headset Crash Logs

If your headset crashes, we send crash logs about your headset to our servers, which may contain recently generated abstracted facial expressions data and other information about your interactions with the Natural Expressions feature consistent with our Privacy Policy. Crash logs will not include raw image data of your face. Crash logs are stored on Meta servers until no longer necessary to provide the service or until your account is deleted - whichever comes first.

You can see if an app supports Natural Facial Expressions before you download or purchase the app. The app’s product page will include the indicating that the app supports Natural Facial Expressions.

When you enable Natural Facial Expressions on your device and use an app from the Meta Horizon Store (including the Rift Store) that uses this feature, you’ll be asked to give the app access to your Natural Facial Expressions data. You can choose not to allow access. If you choose to allow access, the app will receive your abstracted facial expressions data in real time while you are in the app. Raw image data is not shared with apps, even if you choose to allow access to Natural Facial Expressions data.

If you share your data with an app offered by Meta, the app will use your abstracted facial expressions data in accordance with this notice and our Privacy Policy.

If you share your data with a third party app, the app will process your abstracted facial expressions data in accordance with the app developers' privacy policies. App developers are permitted to use this data only for purposes outlined in the Developer Data Use Policy, which describes how developers must handle user data. But we do not control how a third party app uses, stores, or shares your abstracted facial expressions data, so you should only allow access to your data by apps that you trust. See our Privacy Policy for more information about how third parties access your data.

Note: Fit adjustment and eye tracking are separate features, and not included in this Natural Facial Expressions feature or this notice. For information about how enabling fit adjustment and eye tracking on the Meta Quest Pro headset uses data, please review Fit Adjustment Privacy Notice and the Eye Tracking Privacy Notice. If you choose to not enable Natural Facial Expressions, the headset will not process any Natural Facial Expressions data, and any avatar facial movements will be based on audio where the microphone is enabled. See our Privacy Policy for more information about audio data.