Update on October 21, 2021 at 3:30PM PT: 

Find the most up-to-date information on privacy and security features on Portal, including those related to advertising, on the Portal website.

Originally published on November 7, 2018 at 9PM PT:

We know there are some questions around Portal privacy and ads, so we’d like to provide more details on these topics.

Privacy and Security

• Facebook does not listen to, view or keep the contents of your Portal video calls. This means nothing you say on a Portal video call is accessed by Facebook or used for advertising.
• Portal video calls are encrypted, so your calls are secure.
• Smart Camera and Smart Sound use AI technology that runs locally on Portal, not on Facebook servers. Portal’s camera doesn’t identify who you are.

We also want to be clear about how we use information from Portal

• Portal is integrated with some of your Messenger and Facebook experiences. When you use Portal, we process the same kinds of information as when you use Facebook products on your other devices. Some of this information, including the fact that you logged into your account or how often you use a feature or app, may be used to inform the ads you see across Facebook.
• While we don’t listen to, view or keep the contents of your Portal video calls, or use this information to target ads, we do process some device usage information to understand how Portal is being used and to improve the product. This includes:

• • When you make a Portal video call, we process the same device usage information as other devices with Messenger installed. This can include volume level, number of bytes received, and frame resolution — it can also include the frequency and length of your calls. Some of this information may be used to target ads. For example, if you make lots of video calls, you might see some ads related to video calling. This information does not include the contents of your Portal video calls.
  • Like other voice-enabled devices, Portal’s microphone sends voice commands to Facebook after hearing, “Hey Portal.” You can delete your Portal’s voice history in your Facebook Activity Log. We use Portal voice commands to improve our products; we don’t use them to target ads.
  • Similar to other devices, if Portal crashes, a log about the crash is sent to Facebook that may include small fragments of video and audio information that are less than one second in length. We use crash log information only to improve the Portal experience; we don’t use it to target ads.
  • When you opt in to give us feedback through your device settings, information from your Portal including crash logs and device logs may be sent to Facebook. We use this information only to improve the Portal experience; we don’t use it to target ads.
• We don’t show Facebook ads on Portal. However, you may see ads from some third-party apps on Portal (e.g., music partners) in the same way you’ll see ads from these services on other devices.

For more information, please read the Facebook Data Policy and supplemental Portal Data Policy.