Facebook Launches Portal for Video Chatting

Facebook has just launched a device they call Portal. It’s a video phone that is supposed to make video chatting through Facebook Messenger much easier.

The wide-angle built-in camera will follow the user’s movements and create the sense that the user is sharing a room with the caller they’re talking to. Amazon’s Alexa is integrated into Portal, so it can also play music through Spotify or Pandora, play videos, or cycle through photos.

"The fact that Facebook made it - and integrated Alexa, an Amazon device that has already betrayed users’ trust multiple times - really seems like a bold and questionable move,” said Ruby Gonzalez, Communications director at NordVPN.

“Facebook has failed the public time and time again, with Cambridge Analytica, Russian electioneering, and the big recent data leak. It’s hard to imagine anyone with a shred of concern for their privacy and online security spending a couple of hundred bucks on a ‘smartish’ camera any time soon.”