Facebook backtracks on Portal privacy protections

Facebook is backtracking on privacy protections promised for its new Portal video conferencing product.

The company last week said the product has multiple privacy redundancies built in to prohibit spying on customers or utilizing user data to target ads.

Now, Facebook clarified, saying user data would indeed be collected to potentially target ads, according to Fast Company.

“Portal voice calling is built on the Messenger infrastructure, so when you make a video call on Portal, we collect the same types of information (i.e., usage data such as length of calls, frequency of calls) that we collect on other Messenger-enabled devices," a Facebook spokesperson said. "We may use this information to inform the ads we show you across our platforms. Other general usage data, such as aggregate usage of apps, etc., may also feed into the information that we use to serve ads.”

Read more from Fast Company.