Mark Zuckerberg raises a key concern around Facebook’s Portal

Tony Avelar | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer of Facebook Inc.

Even Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg seems to get why consumers might find its Portal creepy.

In the first of a series of discussions on technology of society Zuckerberg had as part of his annual personal challenge, Zuckerberg appeared to unwittingly concede the key criticism of Facebook’s new video calling device.

While talking about his desire to build more end-to-end encryption in Facebook’s services, Zuckerberg said, “I basically think that if you want to talk in metaphors, messaging is like people’s living room, and we definitely don’t want a society where there’s a camera in everyone’s living room.”

Harvard Law Professor Jonathan Zittrain, who hosted the discussion, pointed out that Facebook’s Portal is quite literally a camera in people’s living rooms.

Laughing, Zuckerberg said, “That is I guess… yeah. Although that would be encrypted.”

When Facebook debuted its Portal in November, the tech community immediately raised privacy concerns about giving Facebook a window into the home after a series of privacy stumbles and had been revealed over the past year.

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