Facebook accidentally shipped "tens of thousands" of virtual reality controllers with hidden messages such as "Big Brother Looks" and "Masons were there"

Facebook

Facebook accidentally shipped "tens of thousands" of virtual reality (VR) controllers with bizarre hidden messages, including "Big Brother Looks" and "Masons were there".

Nate Mitchell, co-founder of Facebook's Oculus virtual reality organization, wrote on Twitter Friday that the company inadvertently printed unusual messages in its touch controllers, portable devices to play games and navigate inside virtual reality.

These messages were intended only for prototypes, he said, but an error meant that they were included in the usual production devices. "Unfortunately, some Easter egg-shaped labels meant for prototypes were accidentally inserted into the internal hardware of tens of thousands of touch controllers," wrote the technical manager.

An example of one of the hidden messages.Nate Mitchell / Twitter

"The messages on the final production material indicate" This space for rent "and" The masons were there. "Some development kits come with" Big Brother is Watching "and" Hi iFixit! We See You! "But these were limited to non-consumer units."

(iFixit is a technology repair company known to have publicly deconstructed new gadgets and posted photos of their bowels online.)

Mitchell added, "Although I appreciate the Easter eggs, these were inappropriate and should have been removed.The integrity and functionality of the material have not been compromised, and we have corrected our process so that it does not happen again. "

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