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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.
That's what I did... become a hermit I mean.
It's getting awfully crowded.
There are no stupid questions, just stupid people.
I've told the story before, but:
My boss and I have talked often, with our phones in our shirt pockets, about a device that uses liquid gallium. Nothing weird had happened as a result.
Then he talked about it in a meeting with me and someone from outside the department, her iPhone on the desk, and two hours later *I* got 20 grams of gallium at the top of my Amazon recommendations. Never seen anything like it in my recommendations before or since.
I wonder whether there's scope for a "reverse Buzzword Bingo" game, where the objective is to use as many words like "huge", "purple", "pleasure" and "vibrating" as possible, as close and as often as possible, around the boss...
"1) speak openly with your partner/mother about an act of armed insurrection against the US"
And pronto you'll get ads for assault rifles and fertilizer.
This is business not paranoia.