Facebook Exec: 'Just Not True' That We Listen To Your Phone's Mic (theoutline.com)

Adrianne Jeffries, writing for The Outline: Facebook executive stepped outside of official channels of communication last night by tweeting about a negative rumor that seems to keep resurfacing no matter how many times the company denies it. "I run ads product at Facebook. We don't - and have never - used your microphone for ads. Just not true," tweeted Rob Goldman, vice president of ads products at Facebook. That includes Facebook-owned Instagram, he said. Goldman was responding to a tweet from PJ Vogt, one of the co-hosts of the tech podcast Reply All, which is producing a segment about the persistent belief that Facebook spies on users through the microphone. Vogt had asked people to call in to share their stories of why they think Facebook may be using the microphone to collect information for advertisers.

Comments

What for

[Anonymous Coward]

What DO you use the mic to listen in for then if not ads?

Scare-mongering, *sigh*

[EndlessNameless]

Any communications app could do this because they all have permission to access the mic and the network. This is not new, and you basically have to trust whatever you install.

If people could confine themselves to crying wolf when there is evidence of a wolf, that would be great. Because we already gloss over too many real vulnerabilities and poor practices in favor of sensationalism and nonsense.

Re:Scare-mongering, *sigh*

[Anonymous Coward]

sensationalism (in this case) gets people thinking about things like "why does this app have access to the mic?". Now that awareness is being raised, it's time to bust out the flood gates of all phone permissions and how they are abused so that real changes can be made.

You shouldn't have to trust what ever app you install. You should be able to trust your phone OS to block apps as you desire. App makers should be held accountable to detail exactly why they need permissions they ask for and a phone OS should be held accountable to let users allow/disable said permissions as they see fit. And not just in a "This app needs X permissions or it will not load". More like a "This app asks for permissions unrelated to it's operation and will be banned from the store if it refuses to work without them"

Very carefully worded

[ugen]

Watch the carefully worded denial, no doubt approved by company's lawyers.
"We don't - and have never - used your microphone for ads. Just not true.". Ok, so they did not use microphone *for ads*. What did they use it for?

(Here are some ideas that are not contrary to this denial: listening in for research purposes, compiling data on behalf of a government)

Exactly what I was wondering

[SuperKendall]

I didn't think Facebook used the microphone for anything before i read that comment - they literally created doubt where there was none!

Re:Overly specific

[Anonymous Coward]

Talking out loud about tin-foil hats now to see if I get any ads for a discount.

Find a shortwave radio and tune it into a station that is broadcasting Chinese or some other language than English. Leave your phone there for several hours then take note if any ads come up in that language.

Seems kind of weird

[93 Escort Wagon]

People spew their life's intimate and sordid details onto Facebook all the time... but they get up in arms that Facebook might be using the microphone to record them?

This is almost as bizarre as those people who demand the government take away constitutional rights due of terror attacks which kill at most a few dozen people a year, yet don't bat an eye at the ~ 9,000 annually who die due to drunken driving.

Re:I get it.

[jellomizer]

If a company is innocent of an acquisition, how are they to prove this to the public?

They cannot confirm it because it is untrue, they cannot deny it, because it makes them seem like they are lying about it. If they say they will investigate it, it means they are dragging their feet. If they can find the source of the acquisition they may be able to sue them for libel, but then it is the greedy big business covering up the plight of the little guy.

In the world of lies, how do you promote the truth?

Now there are a lot of companies that will just outright lie when they are guilty too, but the bigger problem is, how can we show the truth, as the Lies get more press.