Privacy beef on facebook’s first gizmo

FACEBOOK HAS LAUNCHED the first electronic device to bear its brand, a screen and camera-equipped gadget intended to make video calls easier and more intuitive. But it’s unclear if people will open their homes to an Internet-connected camera sold by a company with a questionable track record on protecting user privacy.

Facebook is marketing the device, called Portal, as a way for its more than two billion users to chat with one another without having to fuss with positioning and other controls. The device features a camera that uses artificial intelligence to automatically zoom as people move around during calls.

But pointing an artificially-intelligent camera into peoples’ homes could well raise other privacy questions.

“The first thing consumers are going to wonder is ‘how much sensitive data is this collecting about me?’” said John Breyault, vice-president of public policy of telecommunications and fraud at the National Consumers League.

This week, Twitter users were quick to point to Facebook’s privacy fallacies and what they saw as the company’s impudence in asking people to trust it with a camera called Portal inside their homes. Some compared it to the always-on, always-watching telescreens in George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984. Others saw the gadget’s appeal — but not if it comes from Facebook. —