Facebook made almost 85 billion USD in 2020 selling ads across its platforms, but it appears that the company wants to diversify its revenue streams further. Given that ad sales constitute approximately 98% of its revenue, that’s probably not a bad idea.
The first product it’s looking to introduce is a health and fitness-focused smartwatch with cellular connectivity. For now, the device is rumored to be built on the Android platform, but Facebook is said to be working on its own operating system to support future versions.
The watch is said to support messaging, too, which means it’s likely to incorporate native apps for Messenger and WhatsApp. The cellular connectivity support fits neatly into this plan.
But it’s health and fitness where Facebook wants to make the biggest mark. The plan is to leverage its social clout to build fitness communities, allowing users to compete against their friends and participate in fitness challenges.
Read more:
- 4 ways to get smart about smartwatch security
- How private are your fitness apps? 5 tips to keep them secure
That’s not the extent of Facebook’s hardware ambitions. Project Aria is its upcoming smart-glasses product, which will blend augmented reality into our daily interactions. Facebook says sensors on the glasses will “capture the wearer’s video and audio, as well as their eye tracking and location information.”
It’s also working on a neural wristband that can read electrical signals and send them to an augmented-reality interface. Essentially, this means the ability to type without a keyboard or control something on the augmented-reality screen with your hands.
While this device can’t read your mind, tech that can spy on our thoughts is definitely in the works.
Read more: Tech that can spy on our brains is coming
Facebook wearables: Good idea/bad idea?
It’s important to note that all three products mentioned here are still not in the commercial stage, i.e., they’re prototypes in a lab and their features are still being ironed out. But if Facebook’s history is anything to go by, it’s natural to be wary of the data tracking possibilities.
After all, Facebook tracks your data even when you’re not using the app.
When you visit a website or open an app, your activity on the platform is shared with Facebook, who can send you targeted ads based on it.
Facebook has also exposed user information on multiple occasions, which is disconcerting, to say the least, if it plans on capturing eye tracking and location information.
It seems as if this new push into mind-reading came after its acquisition of startup CTRL-Labs in 2019. Before the acquisition, CTRL-Labs had ambitions to build in the field of electromyography, which aims to translate muscle activity into gesture-related software inputs.
It’s impossible to state conclusively what the specific privacy risks of the new Facebook products are. But one thing is for certain: They’re far more invasive than an app that sits around on our phone.
Would you buy Facebook-engineered wearables? Let us know in the comments!
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Comments
Better chances of there being a cold day in Hell than I buy anything they sell
Agreed. This is probably going to be there response to Apple exposing their violating your privacy. So now they want us to put glasses on so they can spy on everything we do that’s NOT on our phone! I check out a girl and get a someone trying to sell me her phone number. Or look at a cute dog at the park and a pet adoption service start spamming me. CREEPY! And this is me saying this when I normally don’t care about analytics and stuff. When a service asks me if it’s OK to track some limited usage data; that’s fine with me. But someone (Facebook) trying to steal it from under my nose without my consent…NEVER! Glad Apple has exposed them. Wouldn’t take anything from them if they paid me to take it.
I don’t see the problem with it. No one cares about my life that much and to help a company make money is great for the economy!
NO. I want NOTHING from, or to do with Facebook. Ever.
I’m with you on this… Google already had put these sort of products out as did Apple. With tech companies on a political ‘woke,’ rant in the US and working with the Chinese, I’d never want any of this tech crap. It only allows ‘them,’ into more of your daily life, including private matters. Of course, many ‘former,’ Americans have no issue in allowing high tech, or government institutions into every breath they take, or thought they have. But I’ll pass on that.
Chan and Zuck reportedly donated $300 million to The Center for Tech and Civic Life and The Center for Election & Innovation Research — to impact the outcome of an election where “Republicans came within 90,000 votes of controlling all of Washington,” according to WAPO. Now we have a human puppet for President who can barely read cue cards. One of the most bone-chilling photographs I’ve seen is one where His Royal Zuckness is walking rows of seated VR users. No thank you.
I’d rather wear doggy-do covered slippers as earmuffs than wear anything created by that slime ball Zucky who’s got the earth tattooed on his eyeballs.
I strongly agree with the overwhelming consensus here. The only thing I’d have to do with any of Facebook’s products is watching them stick it where the sun doesn’t shine, and rotating it.
Just a solid “F-bomb NO!”
Gonna be a hard NO
I’m with my brothers and sisters here No fucking way. To sort of quote Charleton Heston. They can take my freedom when they pry it from my cold dead hands.
NOOOOO HELL NOOOOO NO WAY I read 1984 and Atlas Shrugged
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO but i said that about the iphone now i have one
Fuckno
It’s a trick question, right?
Never. I would assume most people who have gone so far as to get a Protonmail account would not, either, since we are probably all interested in security.
Hell NO!
That would be a hard NO!!!
No way fuck Zuckerberg
argh , data mining bio metrics aint Family Health Care … straight up creepy the amount of absolute private data being swooped up on millions teen’s mental health along with extremely Personal female monthly cycles ! I reckon the Big Techs are all complete Psycopaths
Let me think…. No.
leftists will have the facebook glasses above their faucci triple masks, and their blue hair will be pulled back for everyone to see their mark of the beast gene therapy barcode
No, I would not recommend using anything related to Facebook or any company known for its frivolous usage of user data–especially those that actively oppose privacy and anonymity.
No way! The amount of tracking Facebook already does of online activity is horrifying, I can’t imagine voluntarily giving them biometric information so they can monetize your eye movements and sell them to advertisers.
All this says is Big Tech (Facebook, Twitter, Google, Apple etc.) will have even MORE access to peoples lives and now your health; hence the New World Order/Reset. NO WAY! Makes you wonder why the HUGE push for vaccine on a .003% death rate (99.97%) RECOVERY Covid Virus! Such a concern…new Gov opened our boarders.
This is a scenario where nothing could go wrong. They don’t allow the CIA to do this because it is a sure fire way to destroy a person while extracting everything they know. Just saying.
Hell no ! Fb can kiss my ass !
no. never
NO WAY!
There is NO WAY I would purchase anything that these tech giants would make, in fact, all these CEO’S should be put in prison!
not even if they gifted the widgets and compensated their use.
Next it will be mandated that every newborn will be micro-chipped like an animal.
Wouldnt surprise me that they are taking DNA swabs already. We are being watched people its the NWO
Another building block on the road to becoming a Cyborg, or worse !!
Murderers should be jailed not running Fascist Corporations on behalf of the real Psycho’s
Its a no from me
Just-Say-No to Twit-Face.
I mean, damn. If you can wear sunglasses and record everything, isn’t that just an invasion of privacy? That’s just gross IMO.
Please make it optional to have this kind of news in my ExpressVPN interface, it distracts from my main tasks. Thanks.
Absolutely, positively certain that I will not purchase or wear a FB product. That company’s intrusiveness and disregard for personal privacy is as obvious as the nose on my ugly mug. And don’t get me started on FB’s political censorship, acting as both platform and editor of certain political viewpoints.
I am taking NOTHING from facebook ever – fakebook is correct
No, nope, no way in hell, forget it, shall I go on? Ha ha!
Nope
Ummm, hell to the No!
Absolutely NO! The sooner facebook is in the trash-heap of history the better.
Facebook and Privacy sounds like the newest oxymoron.
Now they want to know what I’ve looked at as I walk down the street so based on my mental reaction, they can hit me with an advertisement later.
The only individual in our house with a Facebook account is the dog and all they know about her is she is a female with no ‘Facebook Friends’.
Hell no.
Hell no!
Fuck Mark Zuckerburg and Fuck Facebook! No way I’ll spend my money to be manipulated by the Cheryl Sandburg and Mark Zuckerburg Facebook Manipulation Team.
There is NO WAY, in Heaven or on Earth, that I would allow Facebook to touch ANY PART of my physical being. It’s bad enough they touch my mind, as hard as I try to avoid it.
I don’t trust any products from Fakebook, Twitter, Google, Apple, Microsoft…well you get my point. Thank you ExpresssVPN.
Facebook wants to be able to spy on their users and now there are people dum enough to wear a tracker? This is insanity. No, I would never wear anything facebook distributes.
I will never use any of that fakelook shit
and will bet this is not going to be seen in the comments
have a fake day anyway
nothing from that fakebook shit can get me to use anything at all