Facebook是一个功能强大的电话簿，但它很久以前就选择了不建**。有很好的理由不造**。其一，失败的风险很高——当时，Windows Phone正在崩溃，iOS/Android双寡头的局面看起来越来越难以逾越。第二，这将使Facebook直接与谷歌和苹果竞争，并有可能与该公司所依赖的两大平台发生丑陋的冲突。

但为了寻求新的增长，Facebook最终回到了构建自己的硬件的想法上——从某种程度上说，又回到了**上。首先是收购Oculus，这使Facebook成为虚拟现实设备的**商。今天是Portal，一款运行在Facebook Messenger上的视频电话。下面是我的同事杰克·卡斯特伦纳克斯的要点：

The Portal is designed to simplify video chatting by having a wide-angle camera capable of identifying your body, then tracking you as you move around the room. It makes for more comfortable chatting than holding a phone up to your face for extended periods of time. Facebook says the Portal is designed to create the sense that you’re sharing one big room with the people you’re talking to, and c***iders the chats you have on the device an augmented reality experience.

With the Portal, you don’t have to hold, aim, or direct anything. Once a chat starts up, the device’s camera will automatically find people in the room and keep them in frame. If multiple people are in a room, the camera will use a wide angle to fit them all. If there’s only one person, the camera will zoom in to focus on their face. Facebook says this feature makes video chatting more natural, since you can just talk without worrying about camera angles.

上周，在与该设备背后的Facebook团队的一次会议上，我与Portal进行了交流。作为一个思维实验，我试图想象如果我不知道是谁做的，我会对这个设备有什么感觉。这个设计给我的印象是愚蠢但实用：与Echo Show相似，它的小版本，大版本，就像一个方形的销售点设备。作为一款可视电话，它的工作原理与广告上的一样。选框功能是一种动态裁剪，根据帧中的人数和移动位置不断调整角度。该公司表示，这是朝着虚拟现实风格的“存在”迈出的一步，这感觉像是过度销售。但它似乎很有用。

门户另一个引人注目的地方是它的功能非常有限。除了视频通话外，它还可以通过Spotify或Pandora播放音乐，通过Facebook Watch播放视频，或者循环浏览您选择的相册中的照片。亚马逊的Alexa集成到硬件中，因此它可以做Alexa的事情。就这样。

单一用途的工具可以简单而强大——比如说，锤子，便携式蓝牙扬声器。但如果你曾经走过Sur La Table，对草莓去核器和鳄梨切片器惊叹不已，你知道它们也可能有点可笑。如果你买得起一个200美元或350美元的门户网站，你可能已经有了一部**、一台平板电脑和一台笔记本电脑——也许还有一两台Echo——所有这些都可以完成门户网站所做的一切，甚至更多。

之所以要买一个，是因为你打视频电话的次数太多，以至于你愿意投资专用硬件，并在家里给它一个永久的位置。我不知道有多少人有这种感觉，但作为一种服务于这一特定论文的设备，门户网站似乎很有价值。由于1.0版硬件来自一家几乎没有**经验的公司，这是一项坚实的工作。问题是它是锤子还是鳄梨切片机——在上市时，我觉得它更像后者。

不管怎样，如果我不知道是谁**的，我会这样评论门户网站。但我们确实知道是谁**的，在小工具评论的历史上，我很少看到如此多的独立记者对一个设备得出相同的结论。当然，问题在于信任。记者团也不相信Facebook会在他们家里安装一个常开的麦克风和摄像头。即使它带有一个塑料摄像头盖和一个麦克风关闭开关。

以下是一天的热气腾腾的样品：

• “门户网站是一个时尚的新摄像机和屏幕，让与家人和朋友聊天看起来很棒。它只有一个问题：它是由马克·扎克伯格**的。”——杰弗里·福勒，*****。
• “见鬼，不！”这是一位同事在我开始告诉她Facebook的Portal和Portal+的时候做出的直截了当的回答，这是一种新的语音控制视频通话设备，由亚马逊的Alexa提供，Facebook将于周一开始预订。”——Ed Baig，《今日美国》。
• “Facebook已被证明是对人类的净负面影响。但是，如果你是一个对任何事情都毫不在乎的人，那么门户网站可能就是为你而设的。”-马特·诺瓦克，Gizmodo。

还有很多类似的。

也许需求将比记者预测的更强劲。尽管如此，事实仍然是，这是一款在一次隐私丑闻（Cambridge Analytica）中被推迟发布的设备，但却在另一次隐私丑闻中到达。我不确定今年推出门户网站的时机是否合适。但没有比这更糟糕的了。

民主

谷歌公开用户数据，担心向公众披露的后果

道格·麦克米伦（Doug MacMillan）和罗伯特·麦克米伦（Robert McMillan）今天发表了一篇轰动一时的文章，讲述了谷歌如何识别Google+中的一个重要数据漏洞，并没有告诉任何人，现在正永久关闭其伪社交网络中面向消费者的部分。虽然没有证据表明有人利用了这个漏洞，但这一切看起来确实很糟糕(与此相对应的是，谷歌定期清理相关日志，这一点很重要，因此它无法确定。）

A software glitch in the social site gave outside developers potential access to private Google+ profile data between 2015 and March 2018, when internal investigators discovered and fixed the issue, according to the documents and people briefed on the incident. A memo reviewed by the Journal prepared by Google’s legal and policy staff and shared with senior executives warned that disclosing the incident would likely trigger “immediate regulatory interest” and invite comparis*** to Facebook’s leak of user information to data firm Cambridge Analytica.

Chief Executive Sundar Pichai was briefed on the plan not to notify users after an internal committee had reached that decision, the people said.

技术工作者现在想知道：我们建造这个是为了什么？

8月份，我写了一篇关于谷歌内部因蜻蜓计划而发生的大规模员工反抗的威胁日益增长的文章。凯特·康格（Kate Conger）和凯德·梅茨（Cade Metz）对因该问题辞职的员工进行了一些新的采访。他们提出的其中一个优点是，在谷歌工作似乎没有办法不在蜻蜓上工作，至少是间接地：

“You can think you’re building technology for one purpose, and then you find out it’s really twisted,” said Laura Nolan, 38, a senior software engineer who resigned from Google in June over the company’s involvement in Project Maven, an effort to build artificial intelligence for the Department of Defense that could be used to target drone strikes.

司法部要求“反**活动家”提供Facebook信息

以下是杰西卡·施耐德（Jessica Schneider）令人不安的报道：

Trump administration lawyers are demanding the private account information of potentially thousands of Facebook users in three separate search warrants served on the social media giant, according to court documents obtained by CNN.

Facebook、谷歌和亚马逊是新NAFTA协议的大赢家

新的北美贸易协议将230条款的保护范围扩大到了加拿大，限制了我们北方邻国大型平台的责任。

在缅甸发生麻烦后，Facebook在非洲领先

Nitasha Tiku及时了解了Facebook在非洲的雄心壮志如何没有因为在其他发展中国家的经历而黯淡：

Facebook would not disclose how many Express Wi-Fi hot spots there are or how the program has grown, but it is clearly part of Facebook’s larger push into Africa. Three of the five countries where Express Wi-Fi has launched are in Africa. In March, Facebook launched an Express Wi-Fi app in the Google Play store in Kenya and Indonesia. Facebook’s ISP partner in Kenya, Surf, says it has 1,100 Express Wi-Fi hot spots in the country, up from 100 in February 2017. In September, Facebook announced a partnership with The Internet Society, an American nonprofit, to improve internet connecti*** throughout Africa.

Digital rights advocates in Africa say Facebook has evolved its approach after the problems in Myanmar. Facebook is working more closely with civil society groups, sending more delegati***, recruiting native language speakers, planning for contentious electi***, and hosting digital literacy efforts.

Facebook高管承认卡瓦诺听证会上的一个小失误

莎拉·弗里尔（Sarah Frier）说，与我上周在这里看到的一条相反，乔尔·卡普兰（Joel Kaplan）并没有因为在布雷特·卡瓦诺（Brett Kavanaugh）的确认听证会上支持他而道歉。我倾向于相信莎拉，因为卡普兰在法官被确认后在这个周末为他举办了一个派对。

布雷特·卡瓦诺和试图重塑美国的信息****

莫莉·麦凯（Molly McKew）称亚历克斯·琼斯（Alex Jones）、迈克·塞诺维奇（Mike Cernovich）和其他流行社交媒体明星为“在特朗普时代帮助改变美国人消费新闻方式的信息****的行动单位”。在一篇长篇文章中，她通过卡瓦诺确认听证会追踪了这些策略的发展：

Once information architecture is in place, it’s like pipes. You just inject new material into the system, and it gets where it needs to go faster and faster as people get used to receiving narratives and themes in a certain context from certain sources. On the far-right, in particular, there has been a concerted effort to recruit people to participate in this process. They act as human amplifiers, both organic and automated, within these narrative structures. (I outlined an example of this here; it irritated this network so much, there are two “Q cards” that reference that piece).

This process of unleashing c***piracies is not just an online activity. This is about behavioral change. And often, in the case of the far-right, about different forms of radicalization.

Facebook将在印度大选前成立一个选举工作组

据Pranav Dixit报道，Facebook正在成立某种特别工作组，以监控印度的选举干预企图。细节仍不明确：

“The team will have security specialists and content specialists, among others, who will try to understand all the possible forms of election-related abuse in India,“ Richard Allan, Facebook’s vice president of global policy soluti***, told reporters at a convention organized by an Indian media house on Saturday, according to a report by the Indian newswire service IANS. Allan said that the task force will also work with India’s political parties and will try to understand all the ways bad actors can manipulate the platform in India. Members of the task force will be based in India, but it is unclear at this point how many there will be.

WhatsApp、Reliance Jio发起在JioPhones上负责任地使用应用程序的活动

一家名为Reliance Jio us的印度航空公司试图教育公众如何负责任地使用WhatsApp。媒体是街头剧场：

Starting October 9, WhatsApp and Jio would visit 10 cities in different states including Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan for street plays and engage users to guide them on meaningful and positive ways of WhatsApp use.

“Jio has an important role in driving India’s digital revolution by empowering milli*** of Indians. We are excited to… help organise a campaign that educates people on how to communicate in a simple and safe way,” a WhatsApp spokesperson said in a statement.

巴西选举结果：极右翼候选人在错过彻底胜利后走向决选

极右翼政治家贾伊尔·波索纳罗（Jair Bolsonaro）在巴西的崛起可能让美国人耳熟能详：

Mr. Bolsonaro’s first-round victory was all the more remarkable because he lacked the backing of a major party and campaigned on a shoestring budget, relying mainly on social media to build a base. As of mid-September, the Bolsonaro campaign reported having spent about $235,000, a **all fraction of the $6.3 million the Haddad campaign disclosed having spent.

为什么我们在与假新闻的斗争中失败了

马克·斯科特（Mark Scott）审视了假新闻监管的前景，发现与往常一样，技术专家领先于政客：

The fake news merchants are a step ahead, thanks to techniques that allow them to mask their location, masquerade as local activists and purchase political ads in countries’ local currencies to dodge rules against foreign influence.

The new tricks, which also include a shift to photo-based disinformation and use of internet messaging services like WhatsApp, are designed to defeat our outdated definition of what c***titutes fake news — foreign-bought, easily identifiable and blatantly false.

在别处

俄罗斯一名妇女的病毒式视频是反女权主义宣传

上个月，梅根·法罗克曼内什（Megan Farokhmanesh）在一段视频中称，一名女子将掺有漂白剂的水倒进了曼斯帕德夫妇的膝盖，这段视频被病毒传播。但这是一个骗局：

According to a St. Peter**urg-based publication, one of the men featured in the video said the whole thing was staged and the men were paid actors. “They poured water on us,” he wrote on a Facebook post sharing the video in his now-deleted profile. “That feeling when you come to the shooting with two spare pants and leave with a salary.” The publication also suggests that the video was shot by My Duck’s Vision, a studio with Kremlin ties that specializes in viral videos. My Duck’s Vision has denied involvement.

Facebook挖走了Refdash面试准备的领导者，让他们从事工作

Facebook作为LinkedIn的竞争对手对我来说很有趣，因为使用Facebook发布个人生活信息的人越少，它就越像LinkedIn。Josh Contine报道说，该公司刚刚从一家招聘初创公司招募了两名员工来开发其乔布斯产品。

发射

Facebook宣布门户网站，一个专注于视频聊天的回声秀对手

值得一读我们关于门户的整个文章，它深入了解了门户的功能，并为发布添加了良好的背景(我编辑了它。看看你能不能找到我的指纹！）

FacebookMessenger在内部测试聊天和通话的语音命令

“Facebook Messenger很快就可以让你用自己的声音口述和发送信息，启动语音通话和创建提醒，”Josh Contine根据Jane Manchan Wong的推文报道。

摄影机效果平台现在是Spark AR

Facebook为其照相机特效平台起了一个新名字。就我个人而言，我发现相机特效平台更具描述性！

拿

谷歌隐私问题：不，我们没有同意

希拉·奥维德（Shira Ovide）就最近Facebook和谷歌的违规行为有着重要的相似性发表了一篇精彩的文章：“消费者仍然无法就保护他们的数字信息做出明智的选择。”

More than a decade into the era of prevalent social networks and **artphones, people still have no way to make informed choices about how to safely conduct their lives online.

People may not know all the gory details, but when they choose to use Facebook, Google+, Twitter, WeChat, iPhones and other technology products or services, they generally understand that the companies might collect dossiers on what they read, who they chat with and where they go. But people absolutely do not agree to whatever arrangements those companies make with outside parties to pass along personal information or data. Period.

Facebook从剑桥分析的崩溃中学到了什么吗？

我敢打赌，只要用你最恼怒的声音大声读出标题，你就能猜出《****》编辑委员会的想法：

While the Cambridge Analytica scandal engulfed Facebook in a firestorm of controversy, this time the company effectively got a free pass from a nation fixated on Brett Kavanaugh and his turbulent Supreme Court confirmation. Still, with c***equential midterms less than a month away, this latest string of Facebook privacy failures is a discouraging reminder of how much potential there is for things to go terribly wrong — again — during those electi***. It’s not just about user privacy, it’s a sign of how well Facebook is poised to handle sophisticated foreign disinformation campaigns, and where its priorities lie.

最后。。。

关于这个问题，我第一次在洛杉矶的一次报道之旅中，在午餐时间整理了这个界面。我要感谢El Torito为我们提供的Wi-Fi和烤麻辣玉米卷。两个都很棒。

跟我说

请向我发送提示、评论、问题以及您将在这个假期为朋友和家人购买的门户网站的数量。[email protected].