Page 176 - Fortune-November 01, 2018

PA G E
6

wild-
Facebook
fires Portal has
Amazon’s
Alexa voice
assistant
$10B built in.

INSURED
LOSSES FROM
WILDFIRES IN
OCTOBER 2017
California’s
Tubbs Fire in
October 2017
was the most
destructive
in the state’s
history. Insurers
and public safety
officials see it
as a taste of
things to come.

+77% which have spent the

INCREASE IN Facebook’s Poorly past few years releas-
AREA BURNED
BY 2100 Timed Gadget Play ing “smart speakers,”
California’s television controllers,
Fourth Cli- and web-connected
mate Change The company lost your private data. household gadgets.
Assessment, a Now it wants to put a camera in your home. (For more, see “It
compilation of By Jonathan Vanian Might Get Loud,” on
state-funded page 112.)
research, pro- FACEBOOK couldn’t have picked a Facebook is em-
jects a massive HOME TECH
increase in worse time to unveil its first con- phasizing privacy con-
affected areas. sumer gadget for the home, an Internet-connected trols with Portal. It
video calling device dubbed Portal. said the device doesn’t
Just a little over a week prior to Facebook’s mile- record calls, and peo-
+18% stone release of the Portal, the social networking ple have to manually
turn on the camera.
giant announced it had suffered a major hack. Face-
book initially believed up to 50 million people were If people are extra
PREMIUM
INCREASE impacted; it later reduced that figure to 30 million scared about their
Residents in but said personal data like email addresses and Mark Zuckerberg–
areas at risk for phone numbers may have been compromised. approved gadget sud-
wildfires could The hack comes roughly six months after Face- denly turning on and
see double-
digit insurance book’s calamitous Cambridge Analytica scandal, recording their house- POR TA L : COUR T ESY OF FACEBOOK; HOME HUB: COUR T ESY OF GOOGLE
premium which had dinged the company’s reputation, raising hold movements,
increases concerns over how the company safeguards its data. they can slip on a
by 2055, But as Facebook executives told Fortune, the small plastic latch to
according to the company couldn’t afford to be picky about timing. It cover the camera—a
assessment. needed to release the Portal in time for the upcom- decidedly low-tech
—RADHIKA MARYA
ing holiday season. Any later and Facebook risks approach to appease
being further behind Google, Amazon, and Apple, those concerned.

16
FO R T U N E. CO M // N O V. 1 . 1 8