To Look Or Nor To Look
Improving your privacy for a better experience
What is "LookAt" and How Does It Work?
In Second Life, "LookAt" (target and crosshair) refers to a feature that tracks where avatar's heads are pointing and where their camera is focused, including your own, of course. By default, when you click on an object, zoom in on a person, or look around, your avatar's head will physically turn to face that direction and the crosshairs will show into the object or person — be discreet because it will show exactly which part of its body you are looking at.
The "Crosshair" Privacy Issue
While you might just be admiring someone's creative outfit or checking out a shop vendor, Second Life transmits this focus data to the server.
Many third-party viewers (like Firestorm) have a feature called "Show Look At Targets".
When someone has this turned on, they will see colored crosshairs floating in the 3D world showing exactly what every nearby avatar is currently looking at or clicking on.
This can sometimes lead to awkward social misunderstandings or drama if someone thinks you are "ogling" or spying on them.
Meaning of LookAt colors:
Gray: Normal, unlocked camera, inactive mouse.
Blue: Mouse is active.
Green: Mouse is on an avatar or surface.
Pink: Cam is locked onto an avatar or surface.
Orange: Clicking or editing an object.
Yellow: In Mouselook.
How to Disable LookAt for Privacy
If you want to zoom around and explore freely without other people seeing your crosshairs or watching your avatar's head snap toward them, you can turn this broadcasting off.
On the Official Second Life Viewer
The official viewer has historically lacked easy privacy toggles for this, but you can stop your avatar's head from moving and freeze your focus using the Advanced/Develop menus.
Press
Ctrl + Alt + Dto make the Advanced menu appear at the top of your screen.Press
Ctrl + Alt + Qto make the Develop menu appear at the top of your screen.Go to Develop > Avatar.
Uncheck Show Look At (if you want to turn off seeing them yourself).
To stop your own avatar from head-turning, go to Advanced > Debug Settings.
Type
ExDentHeadorLookAtinto the search box to find head-tracking restraints, and set the value to False or 0 (depending on the specific viewer update version).
On Firestorm Viewer (Recommended method)
Firestorm gives you direct and complete privacy controls to stop sending your look-at data to the grid.
Open Preferences (
Ctrl + P).Go to the Privacy tab on the left.
Click on the LookAt sub-tab at the top.
Check the box that says: "Don't send my look at targets to others".
(Optional) You can also check "Don't send my selection target hints" to stop people from seeing exactly what objects you are right-clicking or editing.
Click Apply and OK.
Pro-Tip: If you are using Firestorm and simply want to stop seeing other people's annoying crosshairs floating on your screen, go to Preferences > Privacy > LookAt and uncheck "Show look at targets".
What's Next? Now that you have mastered the basic tools for proper socialization, the next chapter covers the Second Life Economy: what Linden Dollars are, how to get them, and how buying, selling, and trading works in-world.
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