Facebook's new home gadget might have a creepy camera as its main feature
quote:After calling off the launch of a smart display device earlier this year, Facebook is reportedly planning to announce it next week. Here are the details from Cheddar‘s Alex Heath, who cites unnamed sources:
• The main feature will be video chat, and Facebook will use facial recognition to tag users and follow them around the room. (Amazon’s Echo Show and Google-powered smart displays don’t identify users’ faces, though some security cameras do.)
• The device will have a privacy shutter to disable the camera tracking, but amazingly, Facebook may have only thought to include this in response to its own recent privacy scandals.
I wonder if Facebook has thought of using information captured from the cameras as a criteria to track, score, or otherwise evaluate its users. For example, "customizing" ads served on Facebook to a user based upon observed behavior in the home. They could also use info captured, like the media you are watching or listening to, or certain conversations in your home, to tweak the algorithms used to suppress your posts, or even aid in the shadow-banning process for certain users.
This is not a stretch, as Apple is now pursuing the "scoring" of user devices based upon the phone calls users make, and other factors.
How many people will be lulled in by the "that's cool" factor to install more social media corporation's sensors in the privacy of their homes? It is an interesting Security and Privacy issue.
This product was slated to be released during the week just gone. I've been checking and have seen no sign of it. Perhaps FB has delayed the release (again) because of
Well, I can't speak for everybody but this camera could be put to practical use against fraud.
Don't ya just hate it or at the least have a less fulfilling, skepticism filled experience when you call your favorite 900 toll charge service for friendly conversation when "Monique" answers the call and "she" has a noticeably husky voice? How many times have we heard "Yes, I have a cold, but it only makes me hotter, etc..."
You immediately wonder about 'Monique' - then start to feel uncomfortable telling 'Monique' just exactly, in great detail what you'd like to do with 'her'? Damn, I hate that when it happens!
Portal was created with privacy, safety and security in mind. And it has clear and simple settings, so you stay in control.
quote:Facebook doesn’t listen to, view or keep the contents of your Portal video calls. Your Portal conversations stay between you and the people you’re calling.
Let's start a pool for how long it'll take for this thing to be hacked. I'll give it a week.
...It's always listening to you and comes from a division of Facebook run by the former head of DARPA, so what could possibly be creepy about Facebook's new hardware experiment, Portal?
Facebook bills Portal as a video-calling device designed to always be on – making distant friends and relatives more accessible....
quote:For Portal to succeed, Facebook must persuade punters who already have very capable video chat hardware (their phones and tablets) to spend nearly $700 on a pair of devices that need to stay plugged in all the time. Good luck with that, Zuck.