Paid, not tracked.
Your phone already collects the data: GPS, motion, signal, light. Big tech takes it for free. Public Oculus flips the deal. You choose which sensors to share, you see exactly what each one contributes, and you get paid for it. Nothing turns on by default. Every permission can be revoked in one tap.
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Consent
Nothing turns on by default. Every sensor is an explicit, itemized choice.
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Control
Pause or revoke any permission in one tap. Your sensors, your terms.
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Compensation
Every sensor shows its rate. Every point is yours to redeem. No vague rewards.
A look at the app
The app is in preview. The first data types you can share are GPS, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, motion, barometer, light and network. Microphone, camera and screen are marked coming soon and can't be switched on yet.
Where the money comes from
Members get paid because the data is worth paying for. Aggregated sensor readings — where signal is strong, how a street actually moves, what the air did block by block — are ground truth that researchers and businesses already buy. Much of it is supplied today by brokers who never asked the person holding the phone.
That supply is being shut down in public. Four states (California, Texas, Oregon, Vermont) now require data brokers to register, and since October 2025, Maryland bans the sale of sensitive data, precise location included. The FTC has banned location-data brokers, by name, from selling sensitive location data. And since August 2026, every broker registered in California must honor a single statewide delete request; the platform opened to the public in January.
None of that removes demand for the signal; it removes the suppliers who never asked. Data that people knowingly chose to share, and were paid to share, is the version of this market that survives. Public Oculus is building its supply side: the same signal, shared on purpose, every reading with its permission attached.
What exists today
- Built
- the brand, this page, and a working preview of the app — onboarding, per-sensor toggles, a points ledger, an activity log, redemption. The four screens above are that preview.
- Not yet
- a published app, live sensor collection, members, payouts, data sales. Contributions in the preview are simulated until the sensor SDK ships. Microphone, camera and screen stay locked until the storage behind them exists, and identity-linked sharing stays locked until its legal review is done.
When a number appears on this page, it will be a real one.
The company
Public Oculus is early-stage and pre-launch. The infrastructure comes first: storage, an SDK for real sensor collection, the legal groundwork. Collection starts when that work is done.
If you buy aggregated sensor data, research with it, invest at this stage, or report on this market, write to us. Specific questions get specific answers.