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.

Complete lie and a distracting story

[axewolf]

"Facebook is not recording you, it would be illegal to do so, so therefore they are not doing it!"
How little self-respect you must have if you believe any such claim as this after the existence of mass surveillance has been revealed.

All of these little stories, which are posted here almost every day, are meant to nibble away at your outrage and underhandedly restore your trust in the government by soothsaying.

There is nothing mitigating the mass surveillance conspiracy. There are no checks or balances. As a society we looked at the evidence and did not act on it. There is no oversight.
That means it's going ahead and expanding.

There can be no freedom for people who are under total surveillance. It's life imprisonment. It's a hard and fast limit on your potential. Are you really content to have your own humanity and that of your children progressively reduced until there is nothing left? Most people are. If you're not, and you don't change your pattern of action radically, there will be no hope left for you or anyone else.

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.