Ask HN: Has anyone tried to debunk the myth that Facebook is listening?

Volkswagen

I can't speak for Android, but there are a number of precautions on iOS.

The first one is that iOS gives users very fine grained control over what apps are allowed to use the microphone. It's not just a list of permissions, it asks specifically with a system dialogue box whether you want to allow an app to have permission.

Second, the status bar turns a very obvious red color when an app is using the microphone when it's in the background.

If FB was able to bypass both of those safeguards without Apple knowing, it would be a major story.

It’s trivial to debunk by observing that many people who say they’ve experienced this are using iPhones. On iOS, apps can’t silently use the microphone in the background. A background app using the microphone is always accompanied by a red status bar saying that they’re doing it. This doesn’t show Facebook listening, therefore we can conclude that they’re not, at least on iOS.

It’s possible they might be doing it on Android, but once you show that a lot of people are imagining things, it’s a small leap to thinking that they all are.

My answer to this has always been "Why would they need to?" It drains battery, it sends a lot of data, and would be a huge scandal. But you are already telling them where you are, who you're with, and they have information about your credit, etc.

Instead, I've been using this as an opportunity to teach people why big data is scary. In the past people often said they didn't care that Google could, and do, read their emails. Often responding with the ironic "I have nothing to hide" quote, or "I don't care, my stuff is boring." This pervasive rumor, of Facebook/Google always listening, has facilitated this conversation immensely. I've been able to better explain it to many who are not tech or statistic savvy in the least.

I don't believe Facebook is listening, because they don't need to.

Thought experiment for both scenarios:

Every significant national government has a major agency in charge of protecting the environment from harmful emissions with many paid engineers devoted to emissions testing.

None of the major national governments except Germany have an agency devoted to ensuring that devices do not en fringe on user privacy.

If you think that Volkswagen is a bad example take AstraZeneca [1]. No one had to prove that they had committed fraud by missmarketing their drugs. Much of the marketing material was publicly available. Everyone who knew the law, knew that they were breaking it.

Or perhaps you could look at Seimens, which outright bribed, using bags of cash, government officials, in order to close deals [2].

Moral of the story, corporations break laws.

If Facebook is listening to you using your phones microphone, that's not even illegal outside of Germany.

[1] http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Health/astrazeneca-pay-520-mi...

[2] http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/16/business/worldbusiness/16s...