Earlier it was reported that Facebook apparently decided to delay the launch of their smart speakers due to the current privacy scandal that Facebook has found themselves embroiled in. Now according to a report from The Information (paywall; via Engadget), it seems that Facebook will also be further tweaking the upcoming devices to focus on privacy.For those learning about this for the first time, it has been previously reported that Facebook was working on a couple of smart speaker-like devices like Amazon’s Echo Show which would come with a display. One of the rumored features is that it would come with facial recognition that would suggest users to make a call when they are near the devices.
Now according to the Information, Facebook will be making some changes to the devices where instead of the video data being sent to servers for processing and storing, Facebook might make it so that it is all stored locally on the device itself. This means that you won’t have to worry about Facebook collecting your data and storing it on its servers.
Speaking to The Information, Electronic Frontier Foundation attorney Jennifer Lynch said, “It would be concerning in my mind if Facebook is designing and releasing a hardware device that uses facial recognition, as they already have one of the largest facial recognition databases in the world. It would allow them to really take their algorithms to a whole new level because it would be scanning people inside the home from all different perspectives.”