Facebook starts shipping Portal, clarifies privacy/ad policy
Planning to get in early on the Portal phenomenon? Facebook announced today that it’s starting to ship the video chat device. The company’s first true piece of devoted hardware comes in two configurations: the Echo Show-like Portal and the larger Portal+. Which run $199 and $349, respectively. There’s also a two-fer $298 bundle on the smaller unit. The device raised some privacy red flags since it was announced early last month. The company attempted to nip some of the those issues in the bud ahead of launch — after all, 2018 hasn’t been a great year for Facebook privacy. The site also hasn’t done itself any favors by offering some murky comments around data tracking and ad targeting in subsequent weeks. With all that in mind, Facebook is also marking the launch with a blog post further spelling out Portal’s privacy policy. Top level, the company promises to to view or listen to video calls. Calls are also encrypted and all of the AI tech is performed locally on-device — IE not sent t...