For a second ponder the fly on the wall and gander at just how much the innocuous insect is privy too. Now take all that the fly spies with hundreds of eyes, and place it onto Facebook’servers.
Facebook, the social media behemoth, is in control of billions of users information, that information is continually collected online, but Facebook is attempting to bridge that gap, meet Portal.
Facebook developers have created their first product in the history of the company. The developed product is designed to place cameras and microphones in the respective users home. The device will feature a 15 inch screen, a wide angle camera, facial recognition software and microphones.
It’s supposed to use facial recognition to allow people to log into their accounts without having to type in passwords and will be dedicated to video chat.
The product is being created in response to other similar products such as Amazon’s Echo and Google’s ‘home.’ However the device is not being sold as an assistant, rather, Facebook is planning on distributing the product as a social hub. Where friends and family can connect through the device.
The device has not yet publicly been announced but is expected to be formally introduced in May 2018.
Acoording to the source of the publication releasing information about portal, the device will also house the ability to access other applications such as Netflix and Spotify.
Portal will be the first product to emerge from Facebook’s troubled consumer hardware lab, Building 8. Regina Dugan, the former Google and DARPA exec Facebook hired to lead the division, suddenly departed last year after 18 months on the job. Her exit came as numerous other high-level staffers left the division in 2017.
Facebook’s creation of portal suggests that the corporation wishes to make an entrance into the ‘assisstant’ marketplace. Interestingly enough, having previously uncovered the patents applied for by Google and Amazon, it would appear as though Facebook will attempt something similar by placing a camera that records everything in your home.
As the holidays rolled around both Google and Amazon slashed prices on their respective assisstants to create ‘deals’ for the average user. However, according to Consumer Watchdog;
Internet giants Amazon and Google are slashing prices and offering supposed deals on their “digital assistants” this holiday season, but a study of patent applications associated with the devices reveals plans for massive surveillance of users’ homes, Consumer Watchdog warned today.
Consumer Watchdog said that a study of patent applications filed by Amazon and Google with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office reveals a vision for an Orwellian future in which digital assistants eavesdrop on everything from confidential conversations to your toilet flushing habits to children’s movements and the books on bedside tables. They would know when you go to sleep and whom you wake up with.
The aforementioned assisstants are utilizing collected data for the purpose of understanding and learning every aspect of you. Will Facebook’s Portal be any different?
