Facebook’s Portal Camera Spotted Receiving 5-Star Reviews on Amazon, Penned by Facebook Employees

[Pelican Press 0]

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

’s Portal Camera Spotted Receiving 5-Star Reviews on

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

, Penned by

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

Employees

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

Portal, the smart display that was launched by the social media giant last year – just months after being named in the data scandal, has now been caught receiving fake five-star reviews on

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

. It seems that most of the five-star reviews for the Portal device came from none other than

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

employees. This may indirectly help the Menlo Park, California-headquartered company persuade a large number of customers towards its device that competes against the likes of

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

Echo Show and

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

Home Hub.

As first

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

by The New York Times columnist Kevin Roose, the names of multiple Portal reviewers on

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

matched the monikers of

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

employees. This is notably against

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

for reviews as they strictly restrict “creating, modifying, or posting content regarding your (or your relative’s, close friend’s, business associate’s, or employer’s) product or services).”

Roose noted that at least three of over 100 five-star reviews for the Portal perfectly match with the names of

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

employees, including Tim Chappell, the

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

; Javier Cubria,

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

; and Oren Hafif,

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

at the company. Notably, Hafif’s review on

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

was even called out by a customer, who asked the reviewer about his employment status with

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

.

While all the reviews in question were positive, Hafif’s review claimed that the Portal “currently lacks support for more apps and uses,” though he presumed that this would be improved over time. Interestingly,

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

expanded the uses of the device and enabled

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

access shortly after the sceptical review got posted in November.

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

’s Vice President of AR and VR Andrew Bosworth, in a response to Roose’s tweet,

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

that reviews from employees were “neither coordinated nor directed” from the company. He also mentioned that the company would ask the employees to remove their reviews, seemingly confirming the allegation.

This isn’t the first time when the

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

Portal camera found itself in hot water. The video-chat device that was launched in October last year was found to be designed as a source to serve users targeted ads. A

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

spokesperson suggested that the hardware could be used as a channel for gathering information to enable targeted ad campaigns.

Affiliate links may be automatically generated – see our ethics statement for details.

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

facebooks portal camera spotted receiving 5-star reviews on

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

penned by

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

employees watch videos new gadgets video video reviews clips gadgets360.com watch videos new mobile launches new tablets latest laptops tablet pc videos ndtvgadgets.com latest mobile news videos new gadgets video tablets pc video reviews clips laptops videos news
#Facebooks #Portal #Camera #Spotted #Receiving #5Star #Reviews #

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

#Penned #

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

#Employees

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up