ORWELLIAN TELESCREEN OF DOOM: We Tried Facebook’s New Portal Device (So You Don’t Have To). “Of course, I can see people objecting — wait, not only are you putting a Facebook-connected machine in your house, but its camera will also follow you around the room, like some kind of digital Eye of Sauron?!”

Plus: “That was my biggest problem — and likely Facebook’s most difficult hurdle to overcome when selling the Portal. It was the idea that I was putting an always-on camera in my home, connected to Facebook, 24 hours a day. There was no shaking the feeling that I was being watched.”

But at least they’re doing something I’ve recommended for devices for years: “Facebook anticipated this. To protect from that creepy feeling, they built a kill switch into the hardware that turns off the microphone and camera. They also provided a piece of plastic to physically sheathe the camera’s eye. No more taping over the laptop lens like Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, once did. Facebook also went out of its way to let us know that all video chats are encrypted, and the company does not store the contents of the calls, nor does it listen in on them.”

Well, okay then. Who wouldn’t trust that? “Facebook has a demonstrably worse record on privacy than many of its big-tech peers. It also has a business model, targeted advertising, which encourages it to walk up to the limit of what users will accept, and sometimes to walk beyond that line. Let’s not forget that Mark Zuckerberg once said that privacy is an outdated social norm.”