Facebook’s smart home devices will see and hear inside your home, could be “risky” for users

THE world’s largest social network is inside our phones and computers, but Facebook wants to be in your home too — which comes with a warning.

THE WORLD’S biggest social network plans to put a camera and microphones inside your home to record your family and friends and share more of their lives online.

But security experts labelled Facebook’s plans for two face-recognising, artificially intelligent devices as “risky” and potentially “harmful” to users, and warned buyers to thoroughly read their terms and conditions to avoid accidentally exposing too much.

New information emerged about Facebook’s ambitious smart speaker plans this week, tipping the multibillion-dollar social network to reveal two devices at its developer conference in May before launching them later this year.

The Google Home smart speaker officially launched in Australia last year.

The company reportedly created the products, dubbed Portal and Fiona, in its secretive Building 8 hardware facility in California, and both are expected to feature 15-inch screens, a range of microphones to record users’ voices, and a wide-angle camera to film them.

The camera would also be equipped with facial recognition software that could be used to automatically log them into their Facebook accounts to share photos, initiate live video broadcasts, or call friends.

Facebook’s devices, one of which is expected to $US500, would go head-to-head with smart speakers from Google, Apple, and Amazon, although none of those products featured a camera to film users.

Bitdefender senior e-threat analyst Bogdan Botezatu said the addition of a camera, and it's the potential to share things unexpectedly, combined with the wealth of information Facebook already stored about users meant the devices could be “risky” additions to the home.

Mr Botezatu said it wasn’t surprising that Facebook would seek to put a new device inside users’ houses, but consumers should ensure they didn’t share more information than they expected with these devices, the internet, and the social networks behind them.

“I wasn’t surprised when Facebook uploaded my contact information without even asking, I wasn’t surprised when they tried to profile my friends based on what I had stored about them, I wasn’t surprised when they said all my pictures actually belong to them because they were posted on their social network,” he said.

“Why would I be surprised by Facebook now?”

Social network Facebook boasts over 2.2 billion monthly active users. Picture: AFP Photo / Damien Meyer

Mr Botezatu said buyers should be particularly careful about using Facebook’s facial recognition software on the devices as biometric data could be used to unlock secure transactions, software, and even front doors in future, and while “you can change password, you cannot change your face”.

McAfee Asia Pacific chief technology officer Ian Yip said users should aim to share “only the information you absolutely need to” with smart home products, and read up on how to mute their microphones and turn off cameras to protect privacy.

Mr Yip said many consumers were not aware just how much information they were sharing, and should always set their own boundaries rather than using default settings.

“Read your terms and conditions carefully, understand when it is recording, and understand how to turn it off,” Mr Yip said.

“There’s an onus on these providers to be clear about what they are and are not doing with the data they collect. They have to do that to get people over the fear of being compromised.”

Despite privacy concerns around smart home devices, sales are expected to double to more than 50 million devices worldwide this year, according to research firm Canalys.

Originally published as Facebook’s smart home devices will see and hear inside your home, could be “risky” for users