The Wall Street Journal - 21.03.2020 - 22.03.2020

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. ** Saturday/Sunday, March 21 - 22, 2020 |B5

EXCHANGE

fabric digitally. They’re also all supe- rior to their competitors. Just one problem: They come from the mega technology giant that took a flamethrower to our privacy. It’s been almost exactly two years since Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica scandal. It’s also around two years since I wrote about why Facebook didn’t need to listen in on our mics. I’ll spare you the trip down memory lane but in the two years since, Facebook has apologized for the misuse of personal data, fake news, election interference and multiple hacks of its systems. The reality is, the company col- lects more personal data than it needs to perform the services it offers users, and has been evasive and even dishonest when asked about all that data collection. Yes, yes, but, well, uh...now? Facebook is so useful and helpful! My entire news feed is full of old friends and family sharing their stuck-at-home experiences. I’m far more drawn to the posts than the usual political BS I’m used to see- ing there. And beyond the news feed, each of the following has en- riched the life of my now socially distant family. Facebook Groups.There’s no bet- ter way to connect with your local community. Sure, there’s Nextdoor but my city’s Facebook mom group feels more like a club than a mes- sage board. During this current cri- sis, we’re helping each other by posting up-to-date information about the city, stores and supplies

and offering child-care suggestions. Starting next week, Facebook will begin encouraging the people who run local and Covid-19 related groups to share reliable information about the virus from the World Health Organization, CDC and more. Facebook says it does not use the content you post or engage with in groups for ad targeting; however, your membership in a group might “inform your ad experience,” a Face- book spokesperson said. Facebook Portal.Look, I do not want to like the Portal. I’ve even refused to review it on privacy grounds. And yet, dammit, I love the Portal. There, I said it. Log into Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp on the touchscreen and you can video call any of your con- tacts. With two Portals, you can do animated interactive storybooks— important for one of my home’s key demographics. After my mom, donning a digital bowtie, hat and glasses, read my son the “Itsy

Bitsy Spider,” he cried out, “Again, Grandma!” As my parents and my son laughed at the “Three Little Pigs,” I actually began to tear up. Facebook says it doesn’t listen to, view or keep the contents of video or audio calls. Similar to an Amazon Echo, the Portal is always listening for a “Hey Portal” prompt (or the “Alexa” prompt if you enable Ama- zon’s assistant on the device). The Portal has physical buttons to dis- able the mic and camera. And while Facebook says it doesn’t use Portal calls or voice commands for advertising, it might use information about how you use the product—how often you call, what apps you use, etc.— for advertising. Facebook says the $129-and-up Portal has seen increased sales and usage in the last week. Oculus Quest.The Portal lets you see other people; the $399 Oc- ulus Quest, the company’s no-PC- required VR headset, actually lets you escape your house.

If there really were a breakout moment for VR, it’s right now. I’ve meditated on a beach and gone to a Cirque du Soleil show. There are also social games, where you can challenge others to dance competi- tions or racquetball. After years of feeling like a science project, the technology finally feels ready for the masses. Although good luck finding it. Due to coronavirus-related hard- ware production delays, it’s sold out. Facebook says it is working to re- store availability ASAP. And Facebook says that while it doesn’t use your actual move- ments in VR for advertising, if you’re logged into the social network on Oculus, it will collect information about your use of it to inform its ad business. Things like that keep bringing me back to all the privacy and se- curity concerns. I’m worried about relying so heavily on Facebook, es- pecially at this unprecedented time. Could the company—and yes, other tech giants—use this as an opportunity to dial-up data collection? And to what end? “Leaders with authoritarian ten- dencies tend to use crises as cover for implementing surveillance,” said Roger McNamee, an early Facebook investor and author of “Zucked: Waking Up to the Face- book Catastrophe.” “We should not give internet platforms any opportunity to use the coronavirus pandemic to impinge on our civil rights—it’s more than just privacy.” He says he himself uses Facebook sparingly, and wouldn’t touch a Portal. Giving advice in this situation is tough and certainly not as simple as telling you what router to buy. The best I can offer is to be mind- ful of it all and weigh the benefit vs. the costs of each scenario. Despite my son’s newfound love for the Portal, I’ll likely be replacing it with a propped-up iPad. My parents can dress up in real costumes and read real books or I’ll try some interactive storybook apps. I’m will- ing to spend more time with Face- book right now, but I’m still not ready for it to point a camera and microphone at my family.

OK, Fine, Let’s All

Get Back on Facebook

Suddenly its many ways of connecting us

with others seem more appealing

PERSONAL TECHNOLOGY|JOANNA STERN

Tuesday:A post from a neighbor alerts me that the local pharmacy just got in face masks. Wednesday:My son becomes a Guinness World Record finalist for “Longest Time a Toddler Has Paid Attention to Grandparents on a Video Chat.” Thursday:I temporarily escape my home office to swim with ham- merhead sharks. You know which big tech company made all that happen? Face- book. Congrats, Zuckerberg and Co., this pandemic might’ve been just what you needed. Our new coronavirus reality con- fronts us with an extreme challenge: stop our physical selves from being in contact with almost everything and everyone, yet remain connected in all possible ways. Coincidentally, that’s the world Facebook has been building for all along. “We build tools to help people connect with the people they want and share what they want, and by doing this we are extending people’s capacity to build and main- tain relationships,” Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a 2012 letter in advance of the company’s initial public offering. And build, or at least acquire, those tools it did. Facebook Groups, Facebook Live, the Portal video-call- ing box, the Facebook-owned Oculus virtual-reality headset—not to men- tion Instagram and WhatsApp—all do their part to re-create our social

I

t was a week of dramatic adjustment for millions of Americans who hunkered down at home while a deadly virus raged across the U.S. There were new work routines, child-care chal- lenges and loneliness. What did they do to pass the time? They ordered more children’s books. They watched a lot more cable TV. They searched online for toilet paper, hand sanitizer and Clorox wipes. They downloaded apps that allowed them to social- ize with friends or watch strang- ers play videogames. They re- watched the 2017 “BBC Dad” video. Some even purchased old- fashioned puzzles to escape their screens for a few hours. The habits of the confined U.S. consumer provide an early look at which social-networking compa- nies, app developers and entertain- ment outlets could benefit most from this radical shift in American life. One trend that cut across all categories: the mounting needs of homebound children.

Many families are turning to kids programming—on cable TV as well as streaming services—to keep their little ones occupied. Walt Disney Co. released “Frozen 2” to its Disney+ service three months early. TeenNick experi- enced a 171% jump in viewing on Monday compared with the previous week, according to measure- ment firm Samba TV. Books and study aids for kids also dominated Amazon.com Inc.’s Top 100 bestseller list, proof that parents were desperate to educate as well as entertain their children. A midday look at the Amazon list on Thursday found that 74 titles were either focused on amusing young children—including Eric Carle’s “The Very Hungry Caterpil- lar” and Alice Schertle’s “Little Blue Truck’s Springtime”—or helping them learn, such as “Summer Brain Quest” from Workman Publishing. One unsurprising development was that cable news viewership rocketed up as Americans tried to keep up to speed on the pandemic. There were major gains during the

day, when ratings are normally low. CNN was up 80% in daytime viewing, Fox News was up 42%, and MSNBC was up 28%, according to Samba TV. An even bigger jump in viewership went to CNBC as markets moved downward, with a 244% increase in daily time spent watching the business network this week compared with a year ago, according to Samba TV. Americans’ newfound isolation offered an unexpected boost to Houseparty, a video-chat app designed for socializing that enables its younger users to gather on their phone screens as if in a dorm room. Until last week, growth of the four-year-old app had been flat, according to analytics firm Apptopia. Then its popularity surged. Total U.S. downloads on March 13 were 42% higher than the day before. Michael Ferrari, freelance online-search consultant in Ambler, Pa., is a typical new Houseparty user. He and his wife, who are both working from home, arranged

for their 5-year-old son to connect with friends from school and “let them all shout at each other,” he said. “It might be the closest thing we have to a peaceful work envi- ronment for a while.” Group chats designed for busi- nesses also filled up as more em- ployees worked remotely. A video- conference tool developed by Zoom Video Communications Inc. was the most downloaded app from major app stores in the U.S. on Wednesday, with roughly 275,000 downloads, according to analytics firm Sensor Tower Inc. Plenty of distractions from the crush of virus-related develop- ments emerged over the last week. Verizon Communications Inc. said Tuesday that videogame play increased 75% during its peak hour of internet usage from a week earlier. Mobile-device downloads of Amazon’s Twitch, which features mainly live broad- casts of people playing videogames, increased 29% in the U.S. between the weeks ended March 8 and March 15, according to Sen- sor Tower. Another popular diversion was YouTube, where people turned for help with household hobbies. Aver- age daily views of videos with the words “Cook With Me” in the title more than doubled during the first two weeks of March compared with the same period last year, a YouTube spokesman said. One old YouTube favorite that received new attention was the 2017 “BBC Dad” video that offered a lighthearted look at the perils of working from home. It attracted around 100,000 views this week, up from less than 24,000 views a month ago, according to YouTube data. “Guess we can all relate now. :)” the spokeswoman wrote in an email. Without any other live sports available, 50-year-old Brian Sanger of Montclair, N.J., has gone to You- Tube and cable sports networks to find past college basketball match- ups and classic New York Mets and New York Giants games. Last weekend, he went farther afield, immersing himself in live Pakistan Super League cricket matches— while simultaneously watching YouTube videos about the rules of the game. “I can’t remember the scores or the players’ names,” said Mr. Sanger, “but it is kind of fun learn- ing a new sport.” People aren’t just turning to digital distractions. Sales of Cra-Z- Art art supplies and Kodak jigsaw puzzles are “exploding,” said Law- rence Rosen, chairman of LaRose Industries LLC. At Walmart Inc., sales of Cra-Z-art crayons, markers and colored pencils have doubled this week over last. Goliath Games LLC, which makes kids’ games like “Pop the Pig” and strategy games like “Se-

quence,” is another beneficiary. Sales of “Virus,” a card game geared toward children 8 years and older, have jumped 300% in recent weeks, according to Mary Higbe, director of marketing. “People are very much into gal- lows humor,” Ms. Higbe said. —Sarah E. Needleman, Betsy Morris, Paul Ziobro, Lillian Rizzo, Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg, Aaron Tilley, Christopher Mims

How Shut-In

U.S. Families Are

Spending Their Days

PUZZLE: ISTOCK; BOOK: ALAMY

275,000 Downloads of Zoom, a videoconferencing app, on Wednesday

74 Children’s books among the top 100 Amazon bestsellers as of Thursday

171% The increase in TeenNick viewership Monday as compared with the previous week

244% Increase in daily time spent watching business network CNBC this week compared with a year ago

300% Increase in sales of a card game called ‘Virus’ in recent weeks

200,000 YouTube views of the 2017 “BBC Dad” video this week as of Thursday

75% How much videogame play increased during Verizon’s peak hour of internet usage from a week earlier across mobile phones, computers and consoles

SOURCES: SENSOR TOWER, SAMBA TV, YOUTUBE, AMAZON.COM INC., GOLIATH GAMES LLC, VERIZON COMMUNICATIONS INC.

JASON SCHNEIDER

The Wall Street Journal - 21.03.2020 - 22.03.2020

Get our desktop app

Company

Features

Documentation

Resources