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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.
What DO you use the mic to listen in for then if not ads?
Just not true.
So it is, then.
He added "But thats a real good idea! Thanks!"
We don't - and have never - used your microphone for ads, YET...
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.
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According to the latest ruleset, this post should be modded as Vorpal Flamebait +5.
Maybe it is just me, but the denial seems overly specific. Maybe the mic is used to maintain a profile for each user. Oh, and the profile is used to target ads. Talking out loud about tin-foil hats now to see if I get any ads for a discount.
How do they know to target me with anti-snoring advertisements?
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.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
Which phone apps spy on you? All of them.
" ... now your Camera ... no comment. But we do not use information from your microphone"
This space for rent. All reasonable inquiries will be entertained at proprietors discretion.
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)
I think it originated in the Soviet Union:
"Nothing is verified until it is officially denied."
So.....
http://osxdaily.com/2013/11/26...
Just not true.
So it is, then.
Quick question: Does Facebook make up its own ads to serve to people, or does it use an ad-delivery service where another company aggregates the ads for them?
What I'm asking is: does Facebook somehow curate the javascript and other gunk that is served as advertizing, or does the ad service, or do the advertizers themselves somehow curate those programs?
All the web sites that pop up a message saying "we notice that you are using an ad blocker - please stop" makes me mentally reply "I notice you let anyone serve me malware via ads, no way!".
Is it the same for Facebook? Do they let advertizers run just 'any old javascript on my computer?
(And as a corollary to that: can malicious javascript listen to my mike?)
I didn't think Facebook used the microphone for anything before i read that comment - they literally created doubt where there was none!
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
They never started denying it until we started accusing them. But all joking aside, has anyone de-compiled the app to see what's under the hood?
:) I only mentioned it in gmail, in "private" facebook message to my friend, on a random site that used fb auth.. it has got to be the microphone!
Most of the apps that I see on Google's store require access to everything.
Why? Why does a timer need locations access?
Or access to my contacts? Or camera?
Google's apps are the worst.
And Samsung put facebook on my J1 Ace. I can't get the fucker off. And the fucker starts itself up when I disable it. WTF?!?
So, since facebook's app acts that way, I don't believe a word that asshole says.
There are so many easier and more efficient ways of stealing everyone's personal information en masse. Why would they bother resorting to surreptitiously activating your phone's microphone?
Do you use GPS location for ads?
Do you use cell phone tower broadcast information for ads?
Do you use people's contacts
Do you base facial recognition based on photos that people on contact list posted without permissions?
Do you own Whatsapp or whatever it's called to get phone numbers from people?
Does Whatsapp get voice data from people who use the amp? Well it's not "facebook" technically
Do you do get user data based on instagram posts?
Do you work with other companies and purchase personal data based on existing data that you already own on users, email addresses to get birthdates, addresses, phone numbers, occupations info from airline rewards, utility companies, credit card companies, banks, credit bureau companies?
How closely do you work with the government, domestically and foreign? What about users that aren't part of your government's jurisdiction?
"Never have" is nice, but would you put it in writing that you never will?
I am not a sig.
It's Google or Apple listening to your phone's mic. Facebook just buys the data your phone's OS provider is already harvesting.
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If you want me to believe you DON'T listen through my Mic when just having your crap installed runs my battery down 40% faster - even when I'm not using it - you're on the wrong track.
IF you want me to believe you DON'T listen through my Mic but you just about break your neck trying to force me to install your chat app after I remove it by making it so that mobile browsers can't access chat anymore, you're on the wrong track.
IF you want me to believe you aren't spying on me in general and you feel the need to try to force me to install your normal app by making streaming video unavailable if I use a mobile browser you aren't convincing me.
I had their crap years ago. One of the first things I did after rooting my HTC One M8 was remove the crap that was put on their by HTC and/or AT&T.
Now that I have a Pixel it didn't come with a Facebook app, and I haven't installed it on this phone - ever. I do have other social network stuff installed, like Minds, Google +, and a couple of others. I'm pretty sure Google spys as bad as Facebook did, only it does that with Google + installed or not, and I'm pretty sure it has less battery impact.
I bought my wife one of those $50 Amazon tablets mostly because she wanted something like that just for Facebook and chat, the battery life was so pathetic she didn't ever start using it regularly. Now that the Facebook crap has been removed our son uses it for hours on end on road trips watching his kids shows. It's scary how long that battery lasts without Facebook software on it.
No Facebook - if you want to convince me you're not just there to spy on me you'll stop working with manufacturers to put your shitty software on phones in a manner that it can't be removed unless you're geeky enough to use the Android Developer kit and do some ROM flashing to get rid of it. I'm suspicious of ANYTHING that presents itself as mandatory. You'll also make your crap to where it doesn't run unless I start it. You literally make hardware akin to useless. I laugh at the people I see running around having to charge their phones all the time because they shit they have running on it constantly runs their batteries down. I don't carry a power bank and I laugh at people who do. Bullshit apps like Facebooks are what kills battery life, for the most part modern phones running a stable OS build without extra bullshit have incredible battery life.
The preceding post was not a Slashvertisement.
The decision to keep the featurewall features out of the core OS was made in full conscious awareness of the moral inappropriateness of doing so.
It was clear to everyone attempting to make a phone OS that their OS would get squashed if it didn't prioritize app-developer desires over end-user desires. And, that is still true today, precisely because there aren't enough end-users who are serious enough about protecting their privacy to actually change the balance.
The majority of end-users just put up with it. So long as that is true, the rest of us will have to put up with it as well (or opt-out completely, as I have done. I use a dumbphone. It works great.)
I have literally said "my Father-in-law drives a mercedes" and then found a mercedes advert on my FB feed the next refresh. NOTHING else like you described. Turned off their app access to microphone and that crap disappeared.
Caution: Contents under pressure
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.
#DeleteChrome
"I run ads product at Facebook. We don't - and have never - used your microphone for ads. Just not true,"
Translated into English: "You think we actually have to listen in to know how often you creep your ex's page and spank the monkey?
"You make it so very easy for us to spy on you, and we already have so many ways to do so, we don't have to bother with your effing microphone. "
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
I texted a friend about my truck. Didn't even say I want a new one. I used the stock text messaging app.
And god damn it, if Facebook didn't all of a sudden start dropping Ford F-150 ads on me.
I was pretty pissed off to be frank.
I don't believe that facebook is listening takes his assertion from fact to opinion.
And to think, I was just having a conversation with my buddy about how I thought Facebook was listening to me via my phone's microphone when it seemingly answered back, "No, we're not!"
Post the source code.
Good-bye
>"We don't - and have never - used your microphone for ads"
Yeah. We just feed it into out AI (Codename "Suckernet"), which then plays out the ads to you...
Maybe you could suggest a repeatable experiment for us on the intertubes?
Wh47 d1d j00 541, 31337 15n't t3h r0xor5 ne m0r3???
Which means HE KNOWS his shit's being used to do that, you fucking imbecile.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
Simple solution, Facebook: open your source code and prove it.
Thank you for the clarification and the citation. The Soviet Union was the context in which I originally encountered the saying.
2-3 years ago I was having a conversation with my wife about some home upgrades over dinner, this was the very first time we spoke about it and neither one of us were doing research online before hand. That night I loaded up facebook and saw ads for home supply warehouses.
We are talking about an app spying on you for marketing purposes because it is installed on the operating system that the biggest advertising giant on the planet developed and "gave away"?
Everything on android is harvesting data. In scary huge amounts. I imagine Apple does the same and just shares it less. It's exclusive, right?
When I'm forced to carry a smartphone, I get what apps I need from f-droid. I't may be a false sense of security, but I do prefer seeing "This app requires no special permissions" over "This app must access everything"
The only social media I use on a smartphone is google-centric stuff. The way I see it, it's their OS, they are collecting anyway, I might as well get something out of it, and so many are using gmail that even if I don't use it, they are reading my messages by proxy regardless.
Worried about fb collecting on a smartphone? Can you see the forest through the trees?
You are being ripped off every second of every day, so that advertisers can help rip you off even more tomorrow.
https://arstechnica.com/tech-p...
Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
Maybe the two of you should try talking about the nasty around it and see what happens. You could have fun!
Wh47 d1d j00 541, 31337 15n't t3h r0xor5 ne m0r3???
Earlier today my colleague and I were talking about kung fu movies at work, just talk, no googling, and a few minutes later I got an ad for kung fu training from facebook. That is the first kung fu ad I have seen ever. After that we have been talking about buying an Audi car, and are awaiting the ads, just to be sure that they are listening in... But of course that must have been a coincidence, since I'm using Linux, and I know when the microphone on my computer is turned on. I do, however, have an Android phone which I have given all permissions, so if google and facebook cooperate, that could explain this very strange coincidence.
my wife and i are done having kids.
Unless both of you are way above 70 years old and you not only had a vasectomy, but even got your balls removed,
I wouldn't trust 100% this.
Talking with my friends about their upcoming baby and boom next thing i know im getting pampers ads and investing in my childs education ads againsl all of sudden.
Given precedent at Target, It would be now a good idea to make a pregnancy test.
At that this at Target is rather old story. At a time where statistics was the best you could do. Since then we've moved past machine learning and into the real or deep neural nets. You can only guess what Facebook is able to infere and deduce about you..
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
For use in real firewalls
31.13.24.0/21
31.13.64.0/18
66.220.144.0/20
69.63.176.0/20
69.171.224.0/19
74.119.76.0/22
103.4.96.0/22
173.252.64.0/18
204.15.20.0/22
I'm not repeating myself
I'm an X window user; I'm an ex-Windows user
Actually, the real explanation behind this anecdote might be even worse, reaching Orwellian proportions, where the government of Big Brother was even able to know the intimates dreams and nightmares of this citizens.
Constantly listening wouldn't be very efficient :
You'd need a phone that never goes into deep-sleep power saving, constantly processing sound, and probably constantly streaming the audio to the motherbase for analysis. I.e.: you'd be constantly consumer 24/7 the same level of resources as during a phone call.
That's going to be very taxing on the battery life of the smartphone.
Instead it's much more probable that Facebook only collect occasional small cue (phone use, location, who else is on the same network but also pages browsed in any browser - due to their "Like button" javacsript code - etc. tons of small details about you). By collecting all these details, Facebook is able to actually predict (a bit) what you're thinking. Facebook had so much data about your friend that they more or less managed to predict he was going to be interested into meat grinders (or general meat-related products, and grinders happened to be what they had avilable as ads at the moment).
Remember that anecdote about target accidentally predicting a teen pregnancy ? And that was at a time when statistics where the dominant form of analysis.
Nowadays Facebook and co have moved to deep neural nets and similar. They could make sense and see pattern out of tons of seemingly garbage data.
Suddenly interests for meat grinder could have become predictible (At least in this case).
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
Have gnu, will travel.
I was speaking with a co-worker about a VERY specific part for a client, I sit down at my desk, and load up facebook, and guess what part showed up on the FIRST AD IN MY NEWSFEED. This is not some random chance, they had to have heard me speaking of this part, I did no searches for it, I did no page visits, I was simply speaking to a coworker about the part, and poof, there it is. They're lying, they ARE listening.
There are 2 groups of people you can make fun of on the Internet without fear of attack. The illiterate, and the Amish.