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Zuckerberg: Facebook Doesn't Use Your Mic For Ad Targeting (engadget.com)
During today's joint hearing before the Senate Judiciary and Commerce Committees, CEO Mark Zuckerberg fully denied the idea that Facebook listens in on your conversations via microphones to display relevant ads. Engadget reports: Senator Gary Peters (D-MI) asked him to answer "yes or no" whether Facebook used audio from personal devices to fill out its ad data, and Zuckerberg said no. The CEO explained that users can upload videos with audio in them, but not the kind of background spying that you've probably heard people talk about. Peters: "I have heard constituents say Facebook is mining audio from their mobile devices for the purpose of ad targeting. This speaks to the lack of trust we are seeing. I understand there are technical and logistical issues for that to happen. For the record, I hear it all the time, does Facebook use audio obtained from mobile devices to enrich personal information about its users?"
Zuckerberg: "We do not. Senator, Let me be clear on this. You are talking about the conspiracy theory passed around that we listen to what is going on on your microphone and use that. We do not do that. We do allow people to take videos on their device and share those. Videos also have audio. We do, while you are taking a video, record that and use that to make the service better by making sure that you have audio. That is pretty clear."
Zuckerberg: "We do not. Senator, Let me be clear on this. You are talking about the conspiracy theory passed around that we listen to what is going on on your microphone and use that. We do not do that. We do allow people to take videos on their device and share those. Videos also have audio. We do, while you are taking a video, record that and use that to make the service better by making sure that you have audio. That is pretty clear."
"We do, while you are taking a video, record that and use that to make the service better by making sure that you have audio. That is pretty clear"
Not clear at all.
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
They really do, at least on Android devices. Everybody can test that at home.
Install facebook messenger and the facebook app on your phone. Talk about a brand that you otherwise don't talk about.
You WILL have ads for that the next day you open up a webpage.
They do not use it, but theu do listen in. Otherwise he would have stated they do not listen in and thus are unable to use it, because they do not have the data.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
now that would have been interesting
They use it for other undisclosed purposes.
The whole concept of facebook... using your real name... instant fail.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
While this is a very slippery field and it's pretty easy to slid into conspiracy theory terrain, there's old precedent to audio fingerprinting of background noise -- https://www.theregister.co.uk/...">Peter Norvig was doing this at Google already eight years ago. So Zuck's dismissal of "all of that" as a conspiracy theory ("You are talking about the conspiracy theory passed around [...])" is disingenuous at best. Even if Facebook isn't doing it directly... how about allowing third parties to embed a Javascript fingerprinting thingie?
Browser "vendors" (and yes, Mozilla, tu quoque!) are in a race to implement more and more "APIs" to make this feasible. Access to audio? No problem. Accel data? Compass? Attitude? Location? Here you go.
It's really hard to tell what Facebook is actually doing. It has become clear that lying to congress is totally acceptable if it is to be regarded in the interests of 'National Security'. Government actors have been caught out time and time again lying to congress without consequence. If Facebook is indeed doing this, Zuckerburg would have some kind of protection in this circumstance. The more pertinent line of approach here would be to determine if Facebook receives revenue from Security actors
Participatory Governance : The only feasible option for a real democracy, where everyone really does have a say.
On March 12, 2013, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told Congress that intel officials were not collecting mass data on tens of millions of Americans. Snowden exposed him as a liar. He should have gone to jail for it. So Zuckerberg can just lie like a rug and get away with it. It just doesn't matter, Congress is toothless and Zuckerberg knows it.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
So why is Congress getting its collective panties in a wad over this, but they don't seem to give a damn about data breaches like Sears, Kmart, Best Buy, yadda yadda yadda. And don't forget that almost everyone in America got Equifucked. Could it be as simple as that currently Facebook is the popular thing to hate? Or that Facebook hasn't bought...er...donated to the campaigns of...as many Congresscritters as Equifax, etc? Nah, Congress would never be that biased.
I want a new quote. One that won't spill. One that don't cost too much. Or come in a pill.
Unless you use facebook; or things that link to facebook, or little facebook like/link icons that track which website you're on, or ads that link to facebook or companies that partner with facebook, or lovely facebook add-on to chat etc
But let's be clear, facebook do not spy on you at times that they do not spy on you. I hope that's clear.
Thank you Mr. Zuckerberg. It has always been apparent to me that I should never use facebook.
Shocking that people still think "I have nothing to hide, I don't put anything important on it I just stay in-touch with friends" -Seriously if you needed a wake-up call this is it.
#deletefacebook
A 'singular oddity' is an event that cannot be explained and only happens when you are alone.
LOL
Maw! Fire up the karma burner!
Just ask the Winklevoss twins...
Zuck totally owned most of the Senators. Was not expecting that.
Number of lazy, repeat and "I'm a total dumb fuck" questions by people who could not be bothered to research issues in advance dominated the hearing.
Most amazing question was from Ted Cruz about the Palmer Lucky firing. It made the whole thing worth listening to. Had to rewind and play it back I was laughing so hard.
With runners up incompetently hitting on the cross site tracking dimensions and lost opportunities to expose Zucks phony ignorance on the subject. Someone I don't remember who did kind of get him to admit it but in an overly generous way.
On Microphone targeting the obvious follow up questions about data provided by third parties were never broached.
It never occurred to anyone to ask about end users ability to control and view data obtained by Facebook from third parties that work quite a bit differently from Zucks claims about "their data".
Zero questions on shadow profiles and tracking of people who don't even use the service.
No pushback on magical "AI" claims vs. thinking human adversaries. Apparently Zuck thinks AGI is 5 years out or he's full of shit. Either way he's full of shit.
Surprisingly there were people concerned with censorship aspects of the "hate speech" banning and calling out of cowards who think the first amendment is dangerous.
Was also impressed with TIA mention (How Zuck could never have heard of TIA strains any and all credibility) This business of government asking for social media handles for Visa applications and government asking for data was nice to get on record. However the obvious "third party doctrine" related issues were predictable never followed up on.
In all the Senate gets a D+ for dressing themselves and showing up.
Any questions?
Many very compelling stories indicate Facebook does listen to you.
It also links you to other people's devices. I started talking about a political viewpoint I don't have in front of a friend's phone, and I started getting ads for that viewpoint within the hour.
We trust him, the dumb fucks that we are.
But to miss such a opportunity in intelligence gathering...don't think so.
they have an interface for the FBI.. that should be creepy enough..
Can it be tested technically? I would think that someone on Android at this point would have created some low-level way to monitor microphone use (not just "microphone accessed" but actually seeing data come from it) and would have caught Facebook monitoring the microphone.
I feel like there should be some way to check Facebook's access of the microphone at the hardware level.
The users computer captures the audio and stores it as data. Bits and bytes aren't audio anymore.
Fuckerberg never said they don't use those bits and bytes.
âNuff said.
And a new meme about technological ignorance of the political class is born. I guess we should be thankful for small improvements, c.f. a Series of tubes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
That is actually 100% complete and utter bullshit. Here's how to prove it (for Android users. iPhone users don't care about their privacy anyway)
1) Give the FB or Messenger app (it works with either) access to your microphone (because you disabled it by default, remember?)
2) Launch the app (because you also disabled "run on startup" by default, remember?)
3) Gather some co-workers around and talk about a random subject, say, baby food, diapers, and other things related to babies
4) Open a browser on your work PC and go to Facebook, and then look at all the glorious advertisements for baby-related products.
This exact thing happened to me about two years ago when a coworker of mine was in the process of becoming a dad. He came over to my cube and we were talking about baby things. After he left, I logged into facebook on my PC and behold, ads for baby things for the next couple of hours.
That event is what made me a whole lot more zealous about privacy. I quit FB after that for sure, and have generally withdrawn from online life, except the occasional forum like this one.
But Zuck probably loved the idea and gonna implement it as soon he go back to his desk.
they can purchase text of audio data from the cell carriers
It's like when someone says plate. And then someone says shrimp. And then someone says plate of shrimp .... It's part of the cosmic web of coincidence.
This is just typical snake oil salesman bullshit mixed with spy operative how-to-beat-a-lie-detector-test by saying a truth about something when hearing something else entirely.
I'm so tired of theater politics anymore. Anyone wanting to go look at my previous comments on other FB stories; feel free, I've said this numerous times: this changes nothing. When people you are in bed with are asking the questions (and pretty fucking formulated and ambiguous, btw) coupled with Zuckerberg preparing his ass off to say exactly the right things that can't confirm nor deny anything, why in the HELL was this done anyway? And why is anyone slurping this up as truth being disseminated?
This is about preserving national security in a degree we, as public citizens, have an idea that the Big Machines give our government hooks into this; jeezis, how could it go any better for them? We all willingly carry around our own surveillance system (e.g. phone) with us at all times; it's the first thing you look at in the morning and the last thing you look at before you go to bed. Then secondly, it's about preserving stock, shares and company who doesn't not want to see MySpace level abandonment, because I remember that and that was fucking staggering the drop-off. Because if FB doesn't have you, they don't have a business model what-so-ever.
Both parties know that this is nothing more than damage control and it's better to get wish-washy facts out, then have a leak, right? See, the government DID actually learn something from Snowdon: Don't let the know-all grunt share the real news, have a dog-and-pony show with the CEO who's so far removed from his own empire tell you how it's not like that at all... but it is.
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Do people actually think they're analysing the audio streams of every device waiting for people to say certain words/products so they can advertise that back to them? Real time analysis of millions of audio streams in many languages/accents? Yeah right.
Wanna buy a shirt?
https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
Based on true events (location and persons have been edited for sake of privacy):
So one evening I said to my partner -
Me: "You know what darling, should we consider taking the Catalina Express instead of taking a chopper?"
Darling: "No, Catalina Express is more expensive and takes longer, let's stick with the chopper"
The partner opens Facebook on tablet and suggested ad is "Great deals on Catalina Express".
Dear Zuckerberg, is Facebook using my mic from my tablet to target ads for my profile?
Or should the question rather be:
Dear Zuckerberg, is Facebook scraping data from other sources using my mic on my tablet to target ads for my profile?
Ok, so if it's not Facebook doing this one, then who is it? Someone is definitely listening to the mics even when video is not being captured by the user.
I'm not buying the listening in while facebook app is not taking video thing. Some geek out there would have proven this by now by running it on a phone set up to show you when the mic was in use. I'm no fan of Zuck or Facebook, but until I see proof of this , I'm going to write this off as a conspiracy theory.
https://www.theverge.com/2018/...
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
Hes got some pretty obvious tells when he is bluffing.
Wag the Dog was a great movie, it was about Bill Clinton but the pearls of wisdom for it can be applied here
What is being done here could be flann.
The microphone issue is a distraction attempting to take attention away from the real issue. That FaceBook's real value is in the information it collects about the poor saps who use it.
Conrad 'Connie' Brean: You're goddamn right, then it's got nothing to do with the B-3 Bomber!
John Levy: There is no B-3 bomber.
Conrad 'Connie' Brean: [Knowingly] I just said that! There is no B-3 bomber, and I don't know why these rumors get started!
Henkin, H., Mamet, D., Levinson, B., Hoffman, D., De, N. R., Heche, A., Leary, D., ... New Line Home Video (Firm). (1998). Wag the Dog. Calif.: New Line Home Video.
This has happened multiple times to me. I'll be talking about a new product/service with a friend. And this is something that hasn't been viewed/discussed on facebook or in my browser history. Within a very short amount of time (usually less than an hour) I will see an ad within my Facebook feed. At the top.
They are targeting based on audio.
Look at this from... 2006!
Of course the audio isn't streamed (or is it? There are 700 bit/s speech codecs out there!) live to tah cloud. It's fingerprinted on-device, the fingerprints are then passed through an NN. The thing won't know *what* you say, but it will know what music you listen to, what TV shows are running in the background, perhaps whether your voice shows signs of stress/anger/depression, yadda, yadda.
That's the problem: if we don't wise up, we are at the mercy of those morons.
After watching a movie with Beastie Boys Sabotage soundtrack (Star Trek Beyond), when my phone (Android) was not being used and locked, my FB feed then suggested that I watch a Beastie Boys Sabotage video. The FB app was likely open but the phone was not being used. So, I call BS on that. The FB app must be using the microphone to collect audio in order to do that!
People are so, so stupid to believe this garbage.
yes, facebook has exabytes of your conversations and has 1,000,000 in staff to go through them.
To do what exactly? Who gives a crap, certainly not the conspiracy theorists peddling this garbage.
"I'm going to be grilled by congress next week and I need to be able to truthfully say we aren't using the mic to target ads....yeah, you can turn it back on when I leave D.C..... thanks guys."
I feel, despite Zuckerbergâ(TM)s assurances that they donâ(TM)t spy on me using every possible tool at their disposal, i.e., my computersâ(TM) microphones, strangely unconvinced. I wonder if thatâ(TM)s because he and his company have lied over and over again, and failed to tell people when theyâ(TM)ve done shady shit in the past. Hence I donâ(TM)t use his bullshit service or app anymore. (Iâ(TM)m just glad I had the foresight to make sure I didnâ(TM)t give them any REAL information about myself.
It's Baader-Meinhof phenomenon.
Nobody's listening to you. You aren't that interesting. Don't flatter yourself.
Kriston
I'm the last person to want to defend Faacebook. But across a user base of 2 billion people, just by random chance alone some of them will see ads related to something they talked about recently next to an electronic device. Facebook represents such a huge sampling population that if you allow self-selection, even rare phenomenon will pop out due to self-selection bias.
"What exactly are ALL the things that Facebook records via the mic, and what does it do what that those recordings? and please note Mr Zuckerberg that lying to congress, even if not under oath, is against the law."
The title is missing emphasis.
Facebook Doesn't Use Your Mic For Ad Targeting
Still waiting for that plate of shrimp I ordered hours ago.. cant your schitzophrenic rantings making that happen already??
"Facebook Doesn't Use Your Mic For Ad Targeting "
We have a special company that does that for us. We don't do such things.
I'm saddened by the number of users here mentioning ads on Facebook.It used to be admitting to not using proper ad blocking techniques made one a pariah here. Now the lusers wear it as a badge of honour.
Reminiscent of Rumsfelds classic worsmithaplooza: "we have some known Knows, some unknowns, some no knowns, some unknown no knowns, and some known unknown unknowns... any questions? You get all of that...? Great. Good. Next question." Dude basically just said yes yea absolutely thats pretty clear, without directly saying it. Fuck mark Fuckerberg & the Winklepuss twins.
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Who knew less about his company that would have raised eyebrows at a regulated business.
Why don't you say the same thing about trump? Is it because Zuck is a Democrat? Don't say you DO shit talk the president because you post a lot on here and you ALWAYS give your GOP boys the benefit of the doubt, when trump, on average, lies 6 times a day.