Facebook Says It's Not Secretly Recording You (fb.com)

An anonymous reader writes: In 2014 Facebook introduced a feature which can use your phone's microphone to identify songs you're listening to -- but "we don't record your conversations," they're reminding users. A mass communication professor at the University of South Florida tried discussing specific topics near her phone, then discovered Facebook appeared to be showing ads related to what she'd said. Though she wasn't convinced there was a link, the Independent newspaper reported that "The claim chimes with anecdotal reports online that the site appears to show ads for things that people have mentioned in passing."

An official statement Thursday reiterated that "Facebook does not use your phone's microphone to inform ads or to change what you see in News Feed." But another news site sees these concerns as a reminder of all the permissions users routinely grant to their apps. "Go into your phone's application settings and you'll see a whole list of what an app like Facebook has access to: your camera, your location, your contacts, and, yes, your microphone too. How about this for a warning? By downloading Facebook you give the app 'permission to record audio at any time without your confirmation.' Tom's Guide security editor Paul Wagenseil says Facebook can...listen to your conversations...but it would be illegal to do so."
Meanwhile, the FBI "can neither confirm nor deny" that it's ever tapped an Amazon Echo device.

Comments

Uh-oh

[marcle]

"Can neither confirm nor deny" doesn't sound good.

What's better than a geo-tracking device every citizen carries that also allows access to phone conversations, texts, and emails?

An audio feed of everything that happens inside the citizen's house, that's what.

Orwell was prescient, but he didn't foresee that his surveillance state would be sold to "consumers" as the latest shiny toy.

Oh sure

[JustAnotherOldGuy]

But...that's exactly what they'd say if they were secretly recording me, though.

I mean, do you really think they'd come right out and say, "Yeah, we're secretly recording you"?

I believe them

[Livius]

I mean, come on, it's hardly a secret.

Nobody has the intention to build a wall

[NotInHere]

Man, facebook is working really hard at becoming the most evil company. Microsoft, your title is in danger!

"We can do that - but it would be wrong."

[jeffb (2.718)]

Those of us of a certain age remember that phrase well.

But if you've explicitly granted permission for Facebook to record audio from your device, at any time, without notification -- in what sense would it be "illegal" for them to do so?

"I did not brush my ass with your toothbrush.."

[willworkforbeer]

"every night, while you were sleeping"

Re:Complete lie and a distracting story

[hyades1]

I used to object to the term "sheeple", which was usually applied to the majority of people who just can't be bothered to figure out how much of their private lives they're giving away (and the private lives of their friends, relatives and children, too) in return for some shiny, useless app.

I was wrong. "Sheeple" describes these people well. My major concern now is that their actions have endangered my privacy and freedom, as well as the privacy and freedom of those I care about.

This is exactly one of the reasons...

[zuki]

...why I do not currently have it installed on my mobile device.

I found their mobile app to be so intrusive, I uninstalled it after a day of trying it out. The cherry on the cake was that of course, you can't even turn the freaking thing off, which is what I had first tried to do unsuccessfully. Only by going online and searching for this did the bleak reality of it become apparent.

You might call me naive, but I had never come across an app that you can't turn off. The only way to stop it is to deinstall it altogether and wipe the cached data. I guess it must have been determined to be a good feature in order to 'maximize shareholder value' ? Because obviously it's not the sort of thing that can just happen by accident.

So given this heavy-handed approach I wouldn't call it far-fetched in the least that they would decide to parse audio in order to squeeze in contextual advertising.

Meantime, this really brings back on the table the greater issue which is: why are people falling for this free service when they are giving so much more value with all of their personal data than what it would cost as a subscription service of say.... $3 a month or less. I hope that a credible open-source alternative does surface that can perform most of the same functions without the 'walled garden' and incredibly pushy approach they are increasingly taking, not to say anything of their arbitrary algorithmic censorship and heavy-handed monetizing initiatives.