Invite Facebook into your homes

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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Facebook is launching the first electronic device to bear its brand, a screen and camera-equipped gadget intended to make video calls easier and more intuitive. But it's unclear if people will open their homes to an internet-connected camera sold by a company with a questionable track record on protecting user privacy.

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Facebook is marketing the device, called Portal, as a way for its more than 2 billion users to chat with one another without having to fuss with positioning and other controls. The device features a camera that uses artificial intelligence to automatically zoom as people move around during calls.

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It's a particularly trying time for Facebook to release a home camera. Earlier this year, the company had to acknowledge that as many as 87 million people may have had their data accessed by Cambridge Analytica, a data mining firm that worked for the Trump campaign and aimed to use the data to influence elections. More recently, Facebook revealed that hackers managed to pierce its security to break into 50 million accounts .

Facebook says it won't "listen to, view or keep the contents " of video calls, adding that the Portal camera won't use facial recognition or identify people in the video calls. The device will allow users to disable the camera and microphone with a single tap and to lock it with a numerical passcode. There's also a physical camera cover to prevent recording.

Portal will not display Facebook ads "at this time," the company said, although it noted that third-party services such as music streaming might embed their own ads the same way they do on other devices.

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