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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.
Me too, I recently talked about building a little shed thing to house our bins. Next thing you know she starts seeing ads for bin shed things in her facebook feed. Never been discussed previously in any written form of communication. Never been googled (I'm going to build one not buy one). Only ever discussed once. She sure as hell has never discussed or searched for anything like that, and never seen any ads similar to it before. There's coincidence, but that's too much.
That's what I did... become a hermit I mean.
Well, becoming a hermit helps a bit . . . but it doesn't prevent Facebook from compiling a thick dossier about you.
If two of your friends happen to use WhatsApp, and talk about you on it, Facebook now has that information and can now sell it.
Facebook is like the old East German secret police, the Stasi. About 10% of the East German citizens were working as "informal employees", in other words, "informants".
Facebook and WhatsApp users are today's "informal employees". Every time they use Facebook and WhatsApp . . . they are collecting information for the Stasi . . . Facebook.
If Facebook and WhatsApp users don't mind giving away their information . . . well, that's their decision.
What they don't realize, is that they are giving away potentially damaging information about others, as well.
It's getting awfully crowded.
Oh, well, maybe some venture capitalist will realize our potential, and start a social web site for hermits . . .
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!