Facebook finally admits that its new spy equipment can spy on you

It had seemed a little slippery last week, when Facebook announced the launch of Portal, a new gadget with loudspeaker and voice-activated video chat, and the company said it would not use the data collected via the device to target its advertising. It was actually very slippery. Facebook just admitted that Portal is quite capable of collecting data about you and using it to target advertisements. But do not worry, Facebook will probably not do it right away.

Bad communication is, to say the least, confusing. Recode originally stated that "no data collected via Portal … will be used to target users with Facebook ads." A week later, Facebook canceled this claim. Although the company has stated that no data collected will be used for ad targeting, the portal is quite capable of being a data-gathering monster, and this data can absolutely be used for the targeting ads. The company said in a statement:

Voice calls from the portal are based on the Messenger infrastructure. Therefore, when you make a video call to Portal, we collect the same types of information (usage data such as the duration and frequency of calls) that we collect on other compatible devices Messenger. . We may use this information to inform the ads we show you on our platforms. Other general usage data, such as the overall use of applications, can also feed the information we use to serve ads.

It seems to be a simple case where Facebook says one thing and means the very opposite of that thing. In an interview, Rafa Camargo of Facebook told Recode: "I think [my colleague] intended to say that we do not intend to use it. Potentially, it could be used. "

It's embarrassing. It seems that Facebook's communications team was deliberately mistaken and caught, or simply did not know how the new device worked. Anyway, anyone who might have thought about spending $ 200 or more on a Facebook-made gadget and installing microphones and Facebook-powered cameras at home now know that Facebook has designed all of this to collect information about them. life. could turn into profits via ads.

Facebook is not alone in this ambition. The company follows Amazon and Google in the use of voice-activated loudspeakers as potential data collection devices. Amazon was a little more cheeky about it. After all, he created an Echo device that used a camera to analyze people's clothes and used that information to recommend clothes to buy. There are also scattered reports that the company plans to recommend specific brands when you ask Alexa about certain things. Meanwhile, Google does not actively listen to you, but it is experimenting with the introduction of advertisements on various Home devices. Google has not installed a camera in its new home hub, citing customer privacy concerns.

We have known for years that Facebook fights against privacy and security. Mark Zuckerberg has been saying for almost a decade that privacy is no longer a "social norm" and even though Facebook has been trying to backtrack on that claim for years, society has been messing it up. The Cambridge Analytics scandal that surfaced last spring painfully recalled that Facebook's own policies had allowed tens of millions of personal information to flee into the wild and be exploited. It's only last week that Facebook admitted that a data breach had compromised the personal data of some 30 million users. In other words, whether by design or by accident, Facebook can not protect the privacy of individuals.

But as many people have already said, Facebook wants your data because Facebook is a data company. Collecting user data from billions of people generates a lot of money because it can sell targeted advertisements with this data. So it's no surprise that Facebook's first big push in the material space is amplifying this data collection, and that the company's decision to sell ads is not a shock. It is remarkable, however, that society is so disorganized about it.