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It's Possible that the Facebook App is Listening To You, Cambridge Analytica Whistleblower Says (theoutline.com)
Jon Christian, writing for The Outline: During an appearance before a committee of U.K. lawmakers today, Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Christopher Wylie breathed new life into longstanding rumors that the Facebook app listens to its users in order to target advertisements. Damian Collins, a member of parliament who chaired the committee, asked whether the Facebook app might listen to what users are discussing and use it to prioritize certain ads.
"That's probably a question for Facebook," Wylie said. But, Wylie said in a meandering reply, it's possible that Facebook and other smartphone apps are listening in for reasons other than speech recognition. Specifically, he said, they might be trying to ascertain what type of environment a user is in in order to "improve the contextual value of the advertising itself. There's audio that could be useful just in terms of, are you in an office environment, are you outside, are you watching TV, what are you doing right now?" Wylie said, without elaborating on how that information could help target ads.
"That's probably a question for Facebook," Wylie said. But, Wylie said in a meandering reply, it's possible that Facebook and other smartphone apps are listening in for reasons other than speech recognition. Specifically, he said, they might be trying to ascertain what type of environment a user is in in order to "improve the contextual value of the advertising itself. There's audio that could be useful just in terms of, are you in an office environment, are you outside, are you watching TV, what are you doing right now?" Wylie said, without elaborating on how that information could help target ads.
I cannot help but think "painted-on vagina hat".
Regardless of the merits of what the lad has to say.
I'll just be a hermit then.
I could've told you that, would be as much credible.
Call me when you actually confirm that they're listening in (without disclosing it in their terms of use or whatever)
Donald Trump and Mark Zuckerberg have no problem selling out. You're the product, MORONS.
They are already doing it, for sure.
Use the browser, you insensitive app clod.
Sent as ripples into the electromagnetic field. No single photon has been harmed in the process.
Last I checked he worked for Cambridge Analytica not Facebook. Not saying its not true but how would he have some special insight beyond what some other random contractor knows? Or are they just hyping up stuff others have been telling us for years?
It is also possible that bears shit in the woods, that water is wet, and that downloading the Facebook app is a bad idea.
And can it tell the difference between my speech and that "Cheech and Chong" album I was listening to? Oh, look. An advertisement for a marijuana dispensary.
Would that be true or not, it became so common to just store user data, today to target advertisements ; but who can say to what purpose that data is to be used tomorrow?
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
Everybody thinks facebook is listening on you, but what about one of the standard google apps, e.g. the PlayStore App itself could also be listening on you!
And let me prefix this with the caveat that I deleted Facebook years ago and personally despise the company...
1) This sounds like a typical "Look, over there!" deflection type move from Cambridge Analytica.
2) It's hard enough many times to get Google, Siri et al to understand a command when speaking directly at the bloody thing, so I find it rather difficult to believe that somehow Facebook have somehow managed to distill and perfect this system into an always on service (which surely would drain the battery worse than FB already does due to sloppy coding) that works (even when said device is screen off and in a pocket, bag etc.) even outside the usual permission set enforced by a device with such accuracy as to make folk this paranoid (way too many folk claim that they have denied FB, Instagram etc. any 'microphone' access permissions yet it still 'listens').
Don't get me wrong, FB sucks and has way too many hooks into what we do (even if we don't use FB) but this claim at this time to me stretches credibility too far...
Maybe but I can't bring myself to trust someone with pink hair.
And Republicans in control of ANYTHING!
I seriously doubt that FB are 'listening' to voice calls - they just don't have the technical chops for that, but... I bet they are slurping WhatsApp messages. Remember that these come in legalese under the heading SMS and that the promise for security is that messages are encrypted 'end-to-end'... but not at the ends obviously...
No worries. "Facebook overall allows me to keep in touch with my family. I don't care that targeted advertising based on snooping is stepping stone to much more intrusions and oversteps in the future. I also love that one day I will be monitored at work by logging into facebook."
Yeh they do, you're not paranoid. Silverpush is just one of several that keep a low profile:
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/05/theres-a-spike-in-android-apps-that-covertly-listen-for-inaudible-sounds-in-ads/
It listens for encoded sounds in adverts to track watch advert you're watching, its in 200+ apps.
There's others, (Viggle?? Can't quite remember) one that listens to the TV you're watching.
But mostly it's IoT surveillance devices that are sending data, e.g. your LG TV sends details of all the Netflix TV you watch back to LG for sale to data brokers:
https://gizmodo.com/the-house-that-spied-on-me-1822429852
It's 100% likely that apps listen in on your conversations and sell that data, because a) nobody stops them, and b) lots of data brokers, governments etc. want to buy that data and c) it's technically possible now.
Wylie is a bit of a known nutter, so it's worth taking his word with some salt. He admits to stealing the same data from CA that he claims they should have had, when he left the company in 2014. So he's not really up to date or in the clear himself.
The real CA work was done by Carole Cadwalladr; Wylie was a useful source of contacts more than anything, as I read it.
The problem with the story as it stands is that many outlets are conflating intent with actual achievements and it's worth remembering that everyone involved at the CA side are huge bullshit-artists and absolutely not above promising to fix anything and pocketing the fee regardless of whether they actually can deliver or not.
"Encyclopedia" is to "Wikipedia" what "Library" is to "Some people at a bus stop"
This is old news. Heaps of people have reported on Reddit doing "tests" where they deliberately repeat some weird word in the presence of the FB app. Then, lo and behold, a few hours later ads start appearing for that weird thing. And some of the objects they were choosing were definitely not things that could appear by chance. FB apps are listening to people. It's not clear which platforms, however.
On Android, it is relatively easy to reverse engineer the code of an application, provided you have the apk-file.
Aren't there any clever android developers who can check the facebook app code for calls to the microphone api along with the triggers that cause these calls to the api? That would change this from speculation to a very clear indication/smoking-gun.
It's fucking Clinton who is behind this. She is a convicted child killer satanist, who eats her little victims' heart. RAW!
The entire platform was built by advertisers for advertisers. Corporate officers and directors have a duty to manage the corporation for the purpose of maximizing profits for the benefit of shareholders. This has led to companies acting in unimaginably unethical amoral behaviour, an example being water privatization which has led to ticketing of people collecting rain water in barrels and consequential civil revolts. When brought to international court the court refers to the legal precedent of the duty to maximize profits and therefore all is legal.
Facebook is this example taken to an extreme. If they could they would make it so we could not vote without utilizing facebook, that it would hold our banking information, perform our financial transactions, and we would all get an account created whether we wanted one or not. Their underhanded orwellian techniques are most likely just the tip of the iceberg in terms of their unethical behaviour which while legal does not mean we shouldn't take them out upon their knees and burn the skin off the faces of each of their board of directors one by one televised publicly.
Our corporate creations have taken on an international life of their own far outside of the borders of their countries of origin. Sun Tzu teaches us an important lesson for soldiers who step out of line. When sun Tsu was tasked with creating an army out of whores and hand maidens he appointed 2 of them as leaders, then ordered them to do drills, the women tittered and laughed, he proclaimed a failure of leadership and cut off the 2 appointed leaders heads, he then repeated the drill, and all women performed as requested.
We must take a firm hand at some point and cease the boys club approach, begin to instill order and loyalty, else we will have an army of decadent whores run amok and chaos will ensue.
APK Mirror is no doubt one of the best 3rd party app store. https://dragshare.co/
This is an interesting thread of anecdotes about FB possibly listening in to conversations or phone calls, an anecdote being a data point that support the other guy's hypothesis. So why not test the possibility by dropping honeypot terms into daily conversation? We don't even have to wait around for a formal study, because such a finding would be a major coup for any tech journalist willing to devote a week to trying this out. Under iOS at least, any app using the microphone without asking permission first is violating the TOS.
It's fucking Clinton who is behind this. She is a convicted child killer satanist, who eats her little victims' heart. RAW!
You say that like it's a bad thing.
"Encyclopedia" is to "Wikipedia" what "Library" is to "Some people at a bus stop"
i think they are buying up credit reports also and targeting adds based on that.
i got in to some financial problems some time back and sure ass hell i started to get al sorts of financial aid, "cheap loans" and what not all the time. and i sure as hell did not search for such stuff ever or even discuss it with anyone.
And ANYTHING in control of Republicans!
Facebook and google are spying on us all ??
No way that can be true !
aaaaaaa
Last year I met someone for the first time and didn't get her contact info. About 10 minutes later I get a glide connection request from her. Hmmmm... ok. She must've asked one of my friends there, so I accept. Later in person I ask just curious how she got my number, she insists I got hers and made the request without asking her. What?? We go back and forth a little on this til we sort of tentatively agree the app must've spied on us when we met. She had her doubts for a while but no longer thinks I'm a creep.
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I asked Alexa if Facebook listens to every word I say without me knowing, she said no.
The original Facebook app stole everyone's contacts, and those it couldn't steal, it deleted.
Anyone who runs a Facebook app on their phone literally deserves whatever happens to them. They are literally helping destroy democracy.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Is there any software or homebrew andriod that will put a microphone in use indicator on your phone/device? Wouldn't that answer this once and for all if it is doing this? I don't understand why someone can't run the facebook app in such an environment and find out. Is the app trying to detect that and behaving nicely or something?
The app asks permission for the microphone. Why do you think it needs that? Fucking idiots.
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
Do NOT install anything from Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, or Google, anywhere, without taking precautions. Not on your computer, tablet, TV, or phone. Their services and products are spyware, plain and simple. Though I'm happy this is finally in the public consciousness, these companies have been engaging in these practices for many, many years, it is nothing new. If you use any of this stuff without taking care, you have been spied on from the first day you signed up. Forget the NSA, Silicon Valley already has that market cornered.
There have been several eerie instances where Google auto-suggested a search item (based on the first letter or first few letters) that has just been talked about on the phone.
And how do you know this is not just coincidence? If you talked about it it's credible to believe that other people did so as well.
No, it was not a common search term, no it did not make sense based on location, past search history, browsing or whatever. If those weren't just very weird coincidences (which I find hard to believe), then the only logical explanation was that Google was analyzing the voice conversation.
How do you know it wasn't common? To be honest I'm HIGHLY dubious that Google is listening to your conversations. While I cannot deny that its a possibility it doesn't make a lot of sense that they could do this without it becoming public knowledge. SO many people would have to keep it a secret that I just don't really buy it.
Of course if you use Android always remember that Google makes their money from advertising so any decisions they make will be through that lens. The more information they have about you the more effective they will be at selling advertising so use Android and any other Google products with that in mind. Not saying be paranoid but be aware.
I've been eyeing a new table saw for a while, and settled on the one I want a couple weeks ago.
Although I've obviously talked about it with my wife (I mean, it's a $500 purchase, not something you just do without talking about it) quite a bit, she has never, ever, not once looked up anything about table saws whatsoever on her phone (iPhone 6s) or laptop (MacBook Pro). Sure, I have on my devices but they are not tied together at all. Separate accounts, separate iCloud, all that. I'm not on a single social media network either although she's a Facebook and Pinterest person.
Her and I have talked, verbally, about the saw I want, and that is the extent of her interaction. While using our computers or phones though for other purposes.
So a couple days ago, she asks me "Any idea why I'm seeing ads for table saws on my computer?"
I will believe it when you show me captured packets from the facebook app sending voice data somewhere while not using it.
Or even a trace showing that the app accesses the mic while not being used for voice chat.
My friend told me thought this was happening a few years ago, and mentioned he thought he could hear the mic turning on in FB messenger. I thought this was bullshit, because why would you be able to hear the *microphone* turn on? Well,, I tested it on my Galaxy S5... I put my ear up to the microphone, and turned on the stock voice recorder app. Sure enough, I was able to hear a bit of static. It was probably coming from the speaker, and I don't know why it occurs at all, but it certainly did. I tried again with calling somebody, and I heard the same distinctive static sound before the call connected (so it wasn't general phone static). I tried again with the video recorder, and heard the exact same static. It's sort of like a fuzzy click sound followed by a very faint static buzzing, and I could only hear it in very quiet rooms. And then, I tried opening the messenger app... as soon as I either (A): opened OR received a new message (B) sent a message or (C) opened the app, I could hear the exact same distinctive static turn on for just a few seconds, maybe for between 5 - 15 seconds. This confirmed to me that the messenger app absolutely records audio. Again, I have no idea why the microphone would make a sound, unless it's some sort of feedback loop between it and the speaker. But I verified that very distinctive sound only occured when the mic should be on, and discovered the sound when using Facebook messenger. I don't remember trying the normal FB app but I suspect it does the same. Other people, please try this experiment and tell me what you find.
Who in their right mind would install the Facebook app?
no, I don't have a sig
He also claimed they changed 5-7% of the Brexit vote. Who cares if his claims are utterly impossible to verify... just give us all your monies! love, CA 2.0
Youre so unique and special, theres no way your "obscure" conversations were trending. No way. Yourr special.
Well of course it could be a coincidence, but it's a very freaky coincidence..
Or some other bit of your behavior other than a random conversation might have lead to that result. Some search term or search term related to a different search term. We rarely have conversations in a total (figurative) vacuum. It's pretty easy to forget about other things we've done that may be related or we may not realize are related. I'm not denying the possibility that Google really is listening in but I'd need a LOT more evidence than a single anecdote which in all likelihood is probably just either a coincidence or has an alternate explanation. Plus that seems like an incredibly economically inefficient way to serve ads. They really would have no way to know the context of any given conversation and selling the ad space would be a tough go.
However I paid a couple of hundred dollars for my phone, it's main and basic function is to make phone calls, so it's 100% wrong for phone calls to be eavesdropped on by the stock apps (i.e. Google apps) for the purpose of advertising-driven data harvesting.
Two points on that:
1) Smartphones are not devices whose primary purpose is to make phone calls. Never have been and never will be. They are handheld computers who just happen to also be able to make phone calls. If you just want something to make calls then you really don't need a smartphone. Good news is that phones who's real purpose is to make calls are a LOT cheaper.
2) The ENTIRE purpose of google making Android is for them to gather data about you and serve advertising to you. They developed it so that companies like Apple and Microsoft couldn't shut them out of the mobile ad market. If you expect Google to not "spy" on you with the intent to serve you ads then you are being naive. It might not be by listening in to a conversation but they definitely are watching your activity.
Yeah, this guy blows things, but they aren't whistles.
Why is everybody conjecturing? Anybody with an Android phone (better with PrivacyGuard) can install the app and watch for requests to use the microphone. Get the PrivacyGuard data to logcat and run grep on it.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
Caution: The linked article contains nasty animated ads which evade uBlock Origin's filters. View at the risk of your own mental health.
Has nobody run tcpdump on their phone with the facebook app open?
Or (more feasibly with a non-jailbroken phone) disabled cell data, used wifi-only, and packet-dumped on a linux-based access point?
Why speculate with complete bullshit, when you can know for sure what kind of data the app is phoning home with?
It just seems wrong to study individuals just so you can design an ad that would better brainwash someone into buying your product.
It is quite disgusting even that ads, like those on TV, cater to some unrelated aspect to convince you their product would have anything to do with that.
Like car ads that focus on sexuality; obviously hoping you would buy a car to become someone you are not.
We have an obesity epidemic now because fast food companies have convinced you that you need 32 ounces of soda with those 2 huge burgers and fries - because the value is better than your health! WTF?!
How about advertisers actually work on better, honest descriptions of products so that we potential consumers can see the ACTUAL value of something and base our purchase on REAL facts.
It seems a far more mutually serving thing to present real facts and possibilities rather than finding ways to manipulate consumers into something we don't need or want.
This is how our society has gotten into trouble before time and time again.
Capital Punishment for offenders!
Self-importance and self-indulgence is the root of ALL evil.
How come no one has included Apple and Amazon in these discussions? Don't their products do the same thing?
Look, Zuckerberg is a gigantic douche, which makes it easy to believe anything about him. However, do you really think Cook and Bezos wouldn't squeeze every last penny they could out of a platform, too?