The past two years, VR Youtuber Brad Lynch (SadleyItsBradley) has been front of the line with releasing VR leaks. Brad is very vocal that his passion is leaks in regards to Valve's VR hardware and software, but that hasn't stopped him from branching out to other companies.
Perhaps his most well known leaks came last summer when he consistently put out insider leaks in regards to the Meta Quest Pro and the Quest Pro touch controllers. In a huge boost to his credibility as a leaker, most of the leaks ended up true propelling Brad into the position of VR's most prominent leaker.
So when Brad released his latest hardware leaks last fall, leaks about Meta's upcoming next headset the Meta Quest 3, it came as no surprise that he had a lot of eyes on him this time around. Fast forward to today in February 2023, and it appears that Meta has squashed their apparent leaker.
Alex Heath, editor of The Verge, wrote on his newsletter "Command Line" that Meta Chief Technology Officer Andrew Bosworth put out an internal memo that after a month's long investigation, the apparent leaker has been caught and removed from the company who was apparently a third-party contractor.
You can view the full statement from Alex Heath below but be sure to go check out and subscribe to his newsletter. You can find the newsletter webpage HERE
One of the most interesting and revealing parts of this report is the claim that Brad was splitting ad revenue with the apparent leaker. Brad did not outright confirm it, nor did he deny it. This aspect certainly adds an interesting potential detail into how these leaks come to be. As well, whether this was Brad's only source of leak's from Meta, whether this was even the correct person, and whether this will slow down Brad's leaks all remain to be seen. VR Hardware leaks are hardly the only source of internal leak concerns at Meta, with internal memo's routinely making mainstream news.
Regardless this at the very least shows a willingness to allocate resources to discovering and preventing leaks at Meta. Especially with the memo coming directly from the CTO. As well, the news of it coming from a third-party contractor, it shows how complicated it is to keeps information internal and why companies like Apple dedicate so much resources to keeping their internal work private.
Check out our recent Ruff Talk VR podcast interview below with Brad Lynch to hear more about how he started as a leaker and his passion for the world of VR.
