Facebook unveils smart home device amid privacy concerns

Facebook announced on Monday that it is producing a new voice-activated device called Facebook Portal that will come with a screen, video camera and a microphone.

The new smart home device also includes an always-listening Amazon Alexa-voice assistant, and is likely to bring new scrutiny to a company already dealing with the fallout of several data privacy controversies.

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Facebook will offer the new device in two different display sizes. It will let users video chat with one another through its connection to Facebook Messenger, use A.I. assistant Alexa and watch and listen to music and TV shows.

Facebook, anticipating questions about security, noted several safeguards in its Portal press release and created an entire separate page touting its security.

Users can disable the device’s camera and microphone with their mobile phones. Portal also comes with a camera cover that its owners can use to physically block the camera.

Portal is available for preorder starting Monday and will ship in November.

Even with the safeguards, the new product is likely to draw some complaints.

Facebook announced late last month that 50 million users’ accounts had been compromised in a hack.

Facebook also endured scrutiny earlier in the year after the news broke that data from 87 million of its users was improperly obtained by the British research firm Cambridge Analytica. 

Fueling further concern is that the product’s ability to link with Facebook Messenger means that users must agree to Facebook’s data privacy policies, which critics have questioned as potentially too invasive. 

The data privacy agreement grants Facebook the ability to collect detailed information on its users such as “the people, Pages, accounts, hashtags and groups you are connected to and how you interact with them across our Products, such as people you communicate with the most or groups you are part of.”