The Facebook portal is not designed to be as private as you can hope

I doubt that I am the only one in the world to think that allowing Facebook, all businesses, to enter your home with a microphone and a video camera is a very bad idea.

But of course what the smart portal gadget gadget recently announced by the Facebook portal tries to convince you is what you miss in your life.

Of all the companies in the world, the one I would like to put a camera and a microphone on at home is Facebook. (And yes, I include YouPorn)

– Graham Cluley (@gcluley) October 9, 2018

Perhaps by predicting that many consumers would be skeptical about building such a device by Facebook, the social media company was eager to point out that the Facebook portal was "private by design And that (for the moment at least) they did not plan to run ads:

"The portal does not have Facebook ads yet. Some third-party services on Portal (for example, music partners) may incorporate ads into their content in the same manner as when they provide their services on other devices. "

But the fact that Facebook says it will not launch ads on the Facebook portal from its launch in early November does not necessarily mean that it will not be broadcast. collection information about you that could be used for advertising purposes, is not it?

While the Facebook portal was announced to the world last week, Facebook executives assured reporters that consumers do not have to worry about their data being used for targeted advertising.

As recoding As described, "no data collected via Portal – even call log data or application usage data, like the fact that you have listened to Spotify – will be used to target users with advertisements on Facebook".

But Kurt Wagner's recoding had to update his report this week, explaining that the portal is will collect data about your use of the device and its applications in order to target you ads on other parts of the Facebook empire.

"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, "said a spokesperson in an email Addressed to recoding.

So, not really private by design then.

Remember that this is Facebook – the company that, just days before the unveiling of Facebook Portal, announced a massive data breach affecting users. If they do not use the information you give them freely to target ads, they lose control over them for hackers.

I left Facebook earlier this year. If you can not imagine doing the same, why not listen to this "Smashing Security" podcast that we developed to describe Facebook's closing process: