Facebook is able to identify music and TV when writing status update • Hacker News Board

Re: Facebook is able to identify music and TV when writing status update

#81

Post by kuschku » Mon, Nov 02, 2015, 1:05 PM UTC

colinbartlett wrote: post #79

kuschku wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You choose to turn on the feature. The people around you have no choice at all if they are recorded or not.

How is this different from Shazam? I don't think very many people are paranoid about their conversations being recorded when someone in a bar holds up their phone to identify what's playing.

Because here you have to opt in once, and it will record in the future every time when writing a status entry. People holding up a phone to identify what’s playing are at least noticeable.

Same reason why recording video with a phone (for which you have to hold it awkwardly, or you’ll just record the ground) is different from recording with Google Glass (at first, no one notices if you record or not)

Re: Facebook is able to identify music and TV when writing status update

#82

Post by mrob » Mon, Nov 02, 2015, 1:08 PM UTC

venomsnake wrote: post #49

rrrhys wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That wouldn't be a very useful phone anymore.

It will be - I just connect a slider when I want it turned on

A soldering gun is a plumbing tool. It's far too big for working on phones, and it's likely to damage them with induced current. You need a soldering iron or a hot air rework station.

Re: Facebook is able to identify music and TV when writing status update

#83

Post by joshvm » Mon, Nov 02, 2015, 1:09 PM UTC

rplnt wrote: post #14

Android is in desperate need of allowing users to change permission for app. It's ridiculous that the application decides what it has access to (and android it is not making it easier with a bad permission granularity). And I believe this functionality was in some pre-release 5.0 versions. They removed it because apps would just crash if permissions were removed. However, there are apps that solve this (for rooted ph…

Ironic, because the Facebook graph API actually has excellent granularity on what you can access. They've even taken steps to limit data leaks from your profile - e.g. you can't access someone's friends' status information anymore.

Do you need mic access to record video with sound?

Re: Facebook is able to identify music and TV when writing status update

#84

Post by forgetsusername » Mon, Nov 02, 2015, 1:12 PM UTC

rayalez wrote: post #33

microtonal wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look, I know that nowdays it's popular to pay attention to security and privacy, and I understand that it's important. But can we for once not immediately assume ill intentions? Not really. If I find it important to mention what I am watching or listening too, I can add it myself. Obviously, the goals is not surveillance, since 15 seconds would be a too small amount of time. The goal is getting an even more fine-grai…

I see your point, it's just.... Sometimes people do things simply to add a nice convenient feature. People distrust big corporations, and that makes sense to a degree. But if I imagine a team of programmers that work on that stuff, when I visualise actual human beings that make the decisions, I have very hard time believing that this is the kind of thoughts that go through they heads. Sure, maybe there's some manager…

It isn't that complicated.

Facebook's whole business model is predicated on collecting vast amounts of personal data and selling you advertising. Every feature they add is a means to that end. All of them.

Re: Facebook is able to identify music and TV when writing status update

#85

Post by Silhouette » Mon, Nov 02, 2015, 1:13 PM UTC

kardos wrote: post #65

J_Darnley wrote: post #55

Anyone who has a facebook account deserves this kind of spying.

Is that also true of anybody who is in the same room as those with facebook accounts?

Indeed. There is a reason I chose not to have a Facebook account, and the continued attempts by organisations like Facebook to make my own friends and family spy on me on their behalf are infuriating and, apparently, becoming increasingly intrusive.

Re: Facebook is able to identify music and TV when writing status update

#86

Post by kuschku » Mon, Nov 02, 2015, 1:13 PM UTC

mootothemax wrote: post #77

kuschku wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You choose to turn on the feature. The people around you have no choice at all if they are recorded or not.

> You choose to turn on the feature. >The people around you have no choice at all if they are recorded or not. How's that different to literally any application that sends microphone recordings across the 'net?

It’s not very different, except usually you have to turn it on manually for every single recording. If you record without permission, it is illegal.

Here a user turns it on once, and it will record every time you write a status update, and they might even forgot they turned it on – it poses a liability issue, and it leads to people being less able to find out if they are recorded or not.

In the end, probably it will be the users that end up in court, not Facebook.

Re: Facebook is able to identify music and TV when writing status update

#87

Post by coldcode » Mon, Nov 02, 2015, 1:15 PM UTC

And people complain when aliens use rectal probes. Facebook's ultimate game is to keep you entirely within its universe, know everything you know, and ensure the advertisers have exclusive access to you and your information. It's the only way to grow revenues for a free service and justify a crazy stock price.

Re: Facebook is able to identify music and TV when writing status update

#88

Post by forgetsusername » Mon, Nov 02, 2015, 1:17 PM UTC

jo909 wrote: post #32

sarreph wrote: post #6

"Are you recording my conversations, Facebook?" "Of course not, silly! We don't listen to your conversations, we just identify the things you're listening to , of course!" 0_O

I'm not saying I'm comfortable with this either way, but I do see a difference between recording a conversation with the intent to keep that recording and extract the spoken content, and processing the audio "on the fly" for certain parameters to identify a limited set of things. Of course the problem is you can't control or check which of the two was done with the audio that got uploaded, and that is the scary part…

The problem is that the choice as to whether they actually "listen" to my uploaded processed audio is up to them, not me. At this point the only assurance is "we don't listen."

Re: Facebook is able to identify music and TV when writing status update

#89

Post by beyti » Mon, Nov 02, 2015, 1:17 PM UTC

mootothemax wrote: post #74

zyrthofar wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fuss is about the data sent to Facebook's servers for "identification". You can make the decision to post it or not, but Facebook knows it in either case.

>The fuss is about the data sent to Facebook's servers for "identification". You can make the decision to post it or not, but Facebook knows it in either case. But it's OK for Shazam or Soundhound? At which point is a feature just what it says on the tin ?

Their main functionality is that data, which user knows before installing the app.

Re: Facebook is able to identify music and TV when writing status update

#90

Post by smoyer » Mon, Nov 02, 2015, 1:42 PM UTC

forgetsusername wrote: post #80

smoyer wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't believe the programmers at Facebook have evil intentions - I think they're just trying to build something that's technically cool. The problem is the MBAs will trying to build something businessy out of it and won't care whether it requires evil if it might possible make them some money. There can also be a temporal factor. Today there might be no evil intentions but in a couple years someone might find that…

So you think the engineers are innocent and altruistic, and the MBAs are evil, huh? What an incredibly naive viewpoint. Which one is Mr. Zuckerberg? I recall him have a few choice words for the "suckers" who sign up for his service and hand over their data.

Of course not - I'm skeptical of everyone's intentions and specifically think through how to best protect my own privacy (I don't have a Facebook account). Of course, Facebook didn't choose "Don't be evil" as their slogan so you can assume the standard "Make money by any means possible" slogan. Yes, I'm appropriately jaded.

In any case, the comment I responded to was pretty specific in asking us to trust that the programmers motives were pure. I wanted to point out that things could turn creepy later in the business life-cycle even if the original motives were non-evil.