ΤFacebook has announced the Portal, a series of devices that allow you to make voice or video calls to other Facebook and Messenger users. Two different models were announced today, the Portal and the larger Portal +.
The smaller Portal is an Amazon Echo Show style device, which is basically a giant screen with a speaker. The 10,1-inch screen has a resolution of 1280 × 800 and has 10W dual speakers.
Portal uses a range of four long-range microphones, which take your voice commands, and have a 12MP wide-angle camera that lets you make video calls.
The larger Portal + has a 15,6-inch screen with a resolution of 1920 × 1080, which can be oriented vertically or horizontally. It has the same camera and microphone layout as the smaller Portal but produces better sound with two tweeters, and a woofer layout with a total power of 20W.
Portal is primarily a device for making video calls with your friends on Facebook and Messenger. The camera is designed to focus on you, and to monitor your movement as you move. It can also detect when there are many people in the same room, and include them in the same "frame" of the Video.
The Portal also supports music and video services such as Facebook Watch, Food Network, Spotify, Pandora, iHeart Radio, Newsy and others that it will support later. It will also be able to show you photos and videos from the Facebook library.
The portal also has the Alexa Assistant built-in, so you can use it to have full control of all your compatible smart home accessories.
Regarding the protection of your personal data, Facebook claims that the calls are encrypted and that Facebook does not listen to or save copies of them. Facebook lets you turn off the camera and microphone, which is supposed to turn them off at your own command. Facebook will provide you with the device and a cover for the camera, so that even if it is activated, it can not transmit an image.
But do not forget that we are talking about Facebook, a company that has very loose definitions of the term "personal data", and has been repeatedly accused in recent years of abusing the personal data of its users. Third companies with which Facebook collaborated, managed to enter and abuse the personal data of citizens. The Facebook application is known to collect a large amount of data from users' phones, including call history and SMS data on Android devices.
This company now wants to put a giant screen, speaker and microphone in your living room. Even if they keep their promise and the Portal is as secure and private as they say, this announcement still ignores recent personal data breach events, and we are not at all surprised that this product was released.
I'm not saying we should all be paranoid about our data, but it's a good idea to think about who we provide it to, and that Facebook has exceeded security limits when it comes to protecting it.
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