THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19 , 2019. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ RE A21
BY HEATHER KELLYFacebook isn’t giving up on its
dream of putting a camera in ev-
eryone’s h ome.
A year after the privacy-
challenged social media company
released the first Portal — its
smart-display device designed pri-
marily for video chatting, but not
for checking Facebook — it is add-
ing three more Portal products.
Facebook on Wednesday an-
nounced two Portal displays de-
signed to look like picture frames,
which will come in 8- and 10-inch
sizes for $129 and $ 179, r espective-
ly. It’s a lso m aking an entirely n ew
kind of product called Portal TV,
which is a camera-sporting black
box that connects to a television,
comes with its own remote and
costs $149. The lineup will be
available this fall.
The devices have the same core
features as the first generation of
Portals with some additions. T hey
combine always-on microphones
and the Alexa virtual assistant
with a touch screen (or in the case
of the Portal TV, your existing TV
screen) and w ide-angle video cam-
era. The cameras automatically
zoom in on people talking a nd can
follow them around the room.
There are augmented-reality fea-
tures to wear fruit or cats on your
head, or to play a game throwing
virtual doughnuts at a friend, as
well as more interactive books to
read to kids from far away.
They are still lacking some key
options. You can’t check your
Facebook feed unless you log in to
the Facebook site using Portal’s
Web browser, and there’s no way
to live-stream from the camera.
There’s the ability to co-watch TV
shows but only a limited number
of streaming services, including
Amazon Prime Video, Showtime,
CBS A ll Access and Red Bull TV.
Facebook is betting on lower
prices (the first Portals cost $199
and $349) and the addition of
WhatsApp s upport and s treaming
to help persuade a sliver of its
more than 2 billion users to buy a
Portal, vs. more popular options
from Google and Amazon.
Portals will account for just
4 percent of smart-display ship-
ments in 2019, says David Wat-
kins, an analyst at market re-
search firm S trategy Analytics. He
cites high prices and privacy con-
cerns as reasons the smart dis-
plays haven’t taken off more.
The most popular s mart display
in North America is Google’s Nest
Hub, with A mazon’s Echo Show in
second place, according Strategy
Analytics. It estimates the smart-
display market will hit 31 million
devices globally in 2019. (The de-vices are especially p opular i n Chi-
na, where companies like Baidu
and Xiaomi sell inexpensive ver-
sions of their own.)
At a media event i n San Francis-
co, Facebook’s head of augmented
and virtual reality, Andrew Bos-
worth, declined to share any Por-
tal sales numbers. Instead he
pointed to the company making
new versions of devices as a n indi-
cation that it was a promising
product.
While Facebook hasn’t yet
proved itself as a hardware com-pany — and has had repeated
problems with privacy — it does
have people’s contact lists, said
Michael Pachter, an analyst at
Wedbush Securities.
“Their claim to fame is every-
body on Facebook,” Pachter said.
“They’re thinking, we’ll have you
telecommunicate with your fam-
ily and your friends b ecause y ou’re
already o n Facebook with the p eo-
ple you talk to all the time. Except
we’re not.” In many cases, people
don’t want to communicate with
most of t heir Facebook “ friends.”
The company is continuing to
push privacy o n the n ew d evices. A
physical cover s lides over the c am-
era, which also acts as an off
switch for the device’s micro-
phone. It also added WhatsApp,
giving users access to end-to-end
encrypted video chats on a Portal.
While Facebook does have
third-party vendors who listen to
some recorded exchanges with the
voice assistants to improve how
the p roduct works, i t is offering an
option for any users to opt out.
Continuing the investment in
hardware might seem out of left
field for Facebook, but Jason Low,
an analyst at Canalys, said it’s a
way to keep the mostly mobile
Facebook users engaged with the
service in their homes.
If Portal doesn’t t ake, it could be
remembered alongside of one the
industry’s other notable hardware
failures, L ow a dded.
“I think Facebook Portal is anal-
ogous to the [Amazon] Fire
Phone,” Pachter said. “It’s a solu-
tion in search of a problem, and
there are already really good solu-
tions out there.”
[email protected]Facebook banks on future for Portal
BY MARIE C. BACAHousing companies used Face-
book’s ad system to discriminate
against older people, according to
new human rights allegations.
Two parties — nonprofit
watchdog group Housing Rights
Initiative and a D.C. woman seek-
ing to lead a class-action group —
filed human rights complaints
Wednesday with administrative
agencies in the District and Mary-
land. They a llege that seven hous-
ing companies that lease or man-
age properties in the metropoli-
tan area used Facebook’s advertis-
ing system to target specific age
groups, excluding others. They
also allege that Facebook’s algo-
rithms compounded the issue by
disproportionately showing the
ads to younger users.
The plaintiffs did not file a
charge against Facebook, which is
implementing changes to its ad-
vertising system as part of a set-
tlement over other discrimina-
tion claims. But an attorney for
the plaintiffs said he plans to
subpoena the company during
the investigation process to study
Facebook’s advertising algo-
rithms.
The allegations mark the first
time a civil rights action has ac-
cused specific housing companies
of discriminatory ad-targeting
through Facebook, according to
the Housing Rights Initiative. If
successful, the case could open
the door to other anti-discrimina-
tion actions against advertisers,
even if those advertisers are sim-
ply using another company’s ad-
targeting tools.
“It’s incredibly important to
hold advertisers responsible,”
said Peter Romer-Friedman,
counsel at Outten & Golden and
one of the attorneys on the case.
“To date, both Facebook and ad-
vertisers have said, ‘It’s not us —
it’s them,’ to pass the buck.”
A Facebook spokesman de-
cl ined to comment on the allega-
tions.
Joining the Housing Rights Ini-
tiative in the case is 54-year-old
Neuhtah Opiotennione, who is
filing on behalf of “all Facebook
users who have been interested in
housing opportunities in the Dis-
trict of Columbia metropolitan
area and who have been or are
being excluded from receiving a
housing-related advertisement,”
according to the filing.
Opiotennione works for D.C.
Public Schools and was seeking
housing in the Washington area
during the past year, according to
the filing. Her housing budget
was at least $2,500 per month.
During the 12-month period, she
was a regular Facebook user and
said she would have liked to see
housing ads. But because she was
not part of the age group targeted
in the advertisements, the com-
plaints argue, she was denied the
chance to learn more about hous-
ing opportunities.“It does make me really emo-
tional to feel like I’m not wanted,
and not even considered,” she
said in an interview. “Thrown
away like yesterday’s trash —
that’s how I feel.”
Facebook has long allowed ad-
vertisers to use its algorithms to
market to specific groups of peo-
ple. But many advertisers have
been called out for abusing those
services to discriminate, either
purposely or unintentionally ex-
cluding groups of people from
their target a udience. The compa-
ny became the subject of several
discrimination lawsuits after a
2016 ProPublica investigation
found that Facebook allowed ad-
vertisers to exclude users by race.
One lawsuit — brought by the
National Fair Housing Alliance,
the American Civil Liberties
Union and the CommunicationsWorkers of America, among oth-
ers — ended in a settlement earli-
er this year. The terms require
Facebook to adjust its tools so
that advertisers can’t market
housing, credit and job opportu-
nities based on certain criteria,
including gender, age and Zip
codes, which can be used to help
determine race. Those advertis-
ers also have a much smaller set of
“interest” categories that can be
used to target u sers. The changes,
which the company began imple-
menting in June, are scheduled
for completion by the end of the
year.
In a March blog post announc-
ing the changes, which also in-
cludes a tool to view housing ads
around the country, chief operat-
ing officer Sheryl Sandberg called
the adjustments “an important
step in our broader effort to pre-vent discrimination and promote
fairness and inclusion on Face-
book.”
Facebook is also under investi-
gation by the Department of
Housing and Urban Develop-
ment, which alleges that the com-
pany’s ad-targeting system en-
courages discrimination and vio-
lates the Fair Housing Act. The
agency is checking Twitter and
Google for similar issues.
Google, Twitter, Amazon and
others allow advertisers the abili-
ty t o target a ds, too. But Facebook,
with its hyper-targeted advertis-
ing system and more than 2 bil-
lion monthly users, has borne the
brunt of the scrutiny around ads
and discrimination. Nearly all of
Facebook’s $55.8 billion revenue
last year came from its advertis-
ing business, one of the most
successful in the world.Romer-Friedman, the attorney
on the case, said demographic
information such as age is Face-
book’s “secret sauce.” It allows
advertisers to reach the exact us-
ers they are seeking in a more
detailed way than many other
platforms.
Housing has become more dif-
ficult to find in the D.C. area, with
high rents and millennial-
focused developments frequently
pushing out residents in histori-
cally black communities. One
study found that the District has
the highest “intensity” of gentrifi-
cation in the United States.
The plaintiffs say Facebook’s
algorithm further compounded
the alleged age discrimination by
advertisers. They say the thou-
sands of data points on which
Facebook’s ad system is based
make it more likely that an even
narrower, younger subset of users
will see the ads. An advertisement
targeted to a user between ages 22
and 55, for example, was more
likely to be delivered to someone
in their 20s or 30s because of
Facebook’s algorithms, they al-
lege.
The filings cite at least one
case, an advertisement for Cen-
tral Apartments operated by
Greenbelt, Md.-based Bozzuto
Management, where the targeted
age range was 22 to 40, according
to information displayed when a
user clicked Facebook’s “Why am
I seeing this ad?” feature.
The housing companies named
in the complaints are Bozzuto,
Fairfield Residential (San Diego),
Fore Property (Las Vegas), Grey-
star (Charleston, S.C.), Kettler
(McLean), To wer (Rockville) and
Wood Partners (Atlanta).
Bozzuto said it is “committed to
fair housing" and that it has been
proactive to ensure its advertis-
ing doesn’t discriminate. “We are
confident that our advertising
practices comply with D.C. and
Montgomery County law and will
gladly work with these jurisdic-
tions to investigate and address
any issues,” t he company added.
Greystar declined to comment.
The other companies were not
immediately available for com-
ment.
The complaints are being filed
with the D.C. Office of Human
Rights and its counterpart in
Montgomery.
[email protected]Age discrimination complaints fault Facebook ad system
ANDREW HARRER/BLOOMBERG NEWS
Facebook is under investigation by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which alleges that the company’s ad-targeting
system encourages discrimination and violates the Fair Housing Act. The agency is checking Twitter and Google for similar issues.MICHAEL SHORT/BLOOMBERG NEWS
A Facebook employee demonstrates Portal TV, a camera- and
microphone-equipped device that connects to users’ TV sets.Company builds up suite
of video devices despite
its baggage on privacyD.C.-area rental housing
companies are accused
of using tools improperly“They’re thinking,
we’ll have you
telecommunicate with
your family and your
friends because you’re
already on Facebook.”
Michael Pachter, analyst at
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