The Oculus of Facebook sends virtual reality controllers with scary hidden messages: "Big Brother is Watching"

Tens of thousands of Oculus Touch controllers provide a little more than virtual reality.

The handheld devices of the Facebook-owned virtual reality company are being shipped to consumers with hidden messages inside the controllers that say "Masons were there" and "This space to rent," the company said.

"Unfortunately, some" Easter egg "labels for prototypes have been accidentally added to the internal hardware of tens of thousands of touch controllers," said Oculus co-founder, Nate Mitchell, on Twitter on Friday. referring to the material that will accompany the new Oculus The Quest and Rift S helmets should be shipped this spring.

"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," wrote Mitchell. The last two messages were only about prototypes sent to developers.

iFixit is a group of repair manuals and spare parts online created by the group and whose goal is to teach customers to repair their own electronic devices and reduce waste. The site displays deconstructed consumer electronic hardware whose interior could reveal such hidden text.

"Although I appreciate Easter eggs," Mitchell tweeted, conjuring up jokes in software and media, "they were inappropriate and should have been removed." The integrity and functionality of the hardware n & # 39; Have not been compromised, and we have corrected our process that will not happen anymore. "

The pre-emptive announcement and apology were published quickly for a company criticized for its slow response to problems with its products and services.

"It was a process error, the messages were designed as Easter eggs for prototypes only and should have been removed in pre-production," a Facebook spokesman told ABC News. She confirmed that units that have not yet been shipped will not be recalled.

The error messages will not be visible at sight, the company confirmed.

"The messages are on an internal component of the controller, in other words, they are in the hardware," wrote the Facebook spokesperson. "So, you have to unmount the controller to see one of the messages that will appear on the mainstream controllers (" This space for rent "and" The builders were here ")."