Facebook last week unveiled its Portal and Portal+ smart speakers that can follow you around while you're on a video call. The Appliances expected to ship in early November.
What will happen; Considering the dynamics of Facebook and the global number of its members, one could assume that the two devices will go very well in sales.
Let's think a little more systematically:
To be clear: I do not make a strategic commentary and it's not a hardware or software review since nobody has tried Portal and Portal +.
This is a different perspective.
Facebook is an Internet company that stands out for offering "free" advertising services. The company delayed the release of Portal due to the scandals we all know. If there was no story with her Cambridge Analytica Portal devices would have been announced in May, which eventually took place in October.
But ten days before Portal's announcement, Facebook revealed an even bigger data breach, and four days after Portal's announcement, the company announced new details of hack.
The company announced what personal data had been stolen: name, gender, electronic post office, αριθμός τηλεφώνου, γλώσσα, κατάσταση σχέσης, τύποι συσκευών που χρησιμοποιούνται για access on Facebook, and recent searches.
So if Cambridge Analytica was enough to delay Portal traffic, that's it the hack should have permanently excluded the product.
Let's go ahead:
Eight days after Portale's announcement, Facebook has confirmed that it will use Portal to learn more about you so it can better target you with ads. The anecdote that Portal is another device that can use Facebook to spy on you is no longer an anecdote.
“Voice calling on Portal is based on the Messenger infrastructure, so when you make a video call on Portal, we collect the same types of information (e.g. usage data, duration calls, call frequency) that we also collect from other Messenger messages,” a Facebook spokesperson told Recode.
“We can use this information to update the ads we present to you across our platforms. Other general usage data, such as total application usage, etc. can also be used in the information we use to serve ads. "
However, Facebook's Facebook page reports about Portal "Private by design".
If, after all the above, someone buys the devices, we are probably talking about privacy for a long time with a public that does not care about individual freedoms and their online protection. So good luck...