Facebook Camera is a new feature that has been added to the Facebook website. It allows users to take pictures and videos of themselves without having to sign in. The camera can be used for a variety of purposes, such as taking pictures of friends and family, or recording video of events. However, there are some concerns that may be raised about the Facebook Camera. One concern is that the Facebook Camera could be used to track users’ activities. Another concern is that the Facebook Camera could be used to collect personal information about users. There are also concerns that the Facebook Camera could be used to spy on users.
Right after getting hacked a few weeks back, Facebook announced the Portal, a smart video calling device for your home that they said would respect your privacy. Turns out they didn’t really mean your privacy. Somebody’s privacy might get respected though.
The Facebook Portal has a camera and microphone, and is meant to be used to talk to your relatives, watch videos from social media, and listen to music. It’s supposed to be the new communication portal with the rest of the world, using Facebook and Messenger to communicate with friends and family.
Originally Facebook touted all of the privacy features—you can disable the camera and microphone with a tap, and it comes with a camera cover. And they had originally told the media that no data collected through portal would be used to target users with ads on Facebook. They literally claim on their privacy page that it is “private by design”.
Turns out… that’s not true, as Recode reports:
Basically, since Portal is built on top of Messenger, anything you do on Messenger can be used to target you with ads. Raise your hand if you’re surprised.
RELATED: Facebook Announces a Camera for Your House. Didn’t They Just Get Hacked?
How is This Surprising? Facebook Knows Everything
The fact is, Facebook collects and uses shocking amounts of data about you to target ads. They are collecting shadow profiles that include all of your contact information, even if you don’t give it to them. And there’s no way to opt out—Facebook most likely has your phone number, personal, and work email addresses, and there’s no way to keep advertisers from using them to target you.
RELATED: Facebook is Using Your Phone Number to Target Ads and You Can’t Stop It
It’s all laid out right in Facebook’s Data Policy page. Since nobody will ever click through to actually read it, here are just some examples from the section where they talk about information they are taking from your device:
So yeah, if you put a Facebook smart camera in your house, your privacy probably won’t be respected. Maybe you should put some clothes on.
Device operations: information about operations and behaviors performed on the device, such as whether a window is foregrounded or backgrounded, or mouse movements (which can help distinguish humans from bots).
Device signals: Bluetooth signals, and information about nearby Wi-Fi access points, beacons, and cell towers.
Network and connections: information such as the name of your mobile operator or ISP, language, time zone, mobile phone number, IP address, connection speed and, in some cases, information about other devices that are nearby or on your network, so we can do things like help you stream a video from your phone to your TV.
