Facebook sparks spying fears over ‘plan to sell smart-camera that sits on top of your TV’
FACEBOOK is sparking concerns over privacy again but this time it's because the company will be launching new versions of the Facebook Portal, which some think will be in the form of a camera that sits on top of your TV.
Facebook Portal, the company’s video-calling smart speaker, was launched last November and new video chat hardware has been confirmed to be coming out this autumn.
Despite privacy concerns about the first version of Facebook Portal, Facebook’s vice president of AR/VR Andrew Bosworth said that the sales of the device were "really good."
This is probably what has inspired the company to create more Portal devices, with Bosworth publicly announcing them onstage at Vox Media’s Code Convention.
Experts think that the tech will come in the form of something called a "Ripley" device, which can attach to the top of a TV and make it a device that can be used for easy video chats.
A report from that the“Ripley” device would allow Facebook to enter into a central location in the family home.
Facebook is yet to confirm precisely what its Portal plans are but the rumoured option would be low cost.
The TV smart-camera concept is reminiscent of George Orwell's dystopian novel 1984, which sees society constantly being watched and controlled, but Facebook has stressed its devices are all about improving human connection.
Bosworth said: "Hardware is coming to the home, and we want to make sure that human connection, connection between two people, is a first-party experience on that hardware."
Facebook has already battled some major privacy scandals so will need to reassure customers of its smart-camera security if it wants them to be home centre pieces that users are confident won't be hacked.
Boris Cipot, senior security engineer at Synopsys said: "There is always a concern, or at least the user should approach this with a healthy sense of concern, when using devices with cameras and microphones attached. Once plugged in they immediately become an audio/video data gatherer and transmitter.
"This is their functionality, this is true, but the big question is then what happens when I am not using the device, what data is gathered and stored, can I as a user delete or access this data, how transparent is the data usage, and so on.
"So the question is not if it is secure to keep a camera in the middle of your home, but whether you trust the provider to make this device as secure as possible and ensure that it will not be used by third parties to view me in front of my screen without knowing it or initiate streaming - or whether I trust the company to not to misuse the gathered data."
Facebook's biggest cyber-security mistakes
Here's some of the major times Facebook let us down...
- In 2007, Facebook's first targetted advertising product, Beacon, caused outrage because there was initally no opt-in option about the kinds of information users wanted to share
- In 2009, a Federal Trade Commission investigation was triggered because Facebook users complained that the new privacy tools were too confusing and pushed users to make more of their personal information public
- In 2010, it was revealed that advertisers were using a privacy loophole to retrieve revealing personal information about Facebook users and the company had to change its software
- In 2011, the FTC charged Facebook with lying to customers about how their information could be kept private but making it public anyway
- 2018 saw Facebook's biggest privacy scandal to date with reports that Cambridge Analytica misused user data and Facebook had to admit that it had failed to protect its users
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Would you use a Facebook Portal device for video chatting? Let us know in the comments...
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