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

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

#111

Post by MarkCole »

royjacobs wrote: post #64
MarkCole wrote: post #58

Privacy concerns aside, I'd be very interested on how they're doing this on a technical level. Does anyone know if they've published a post on how this is done yet? Or have any ideas on how they think it's being done?

It's called "audio fingerprinting" and it basically converts a snippet of audio from your phone is something similar to a hash of that audio. Then, using some clever algorithms, it can be quickly matched against a database of existing hashes. Because of the way the algorithm works the match doesn't have to be either 0% or 100%, because realistically whatever is recorded on your phone will never exactly match the orig…

That is interesting, I didn't know it had a name. Now I have something to look for, Thanks!

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

#112

Post by kedean »

rayalez wrote: post #15
kehrlann wrote: post #3

Is it just me or is it _beyond_ creepy ? Location, sound ... soon they will be collecting biometric data as well, "just to get room temperature, promise".

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? I mean come on, do you seriously believe that programmers at facebook are rubbing their hands and laughing at how smart they are, figuring out how to turn on your mike for 15 seconds? Is that really what you believe is going on? Or is it just…

It's not really about their intentions, it's about the possibilities. Even if everyone involved right now has good intentions, who's to say everyone in the future will? The problem with collecting big swathes of data, or setting things up such that it easily could be collected, is that you're enabling future evil.

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

#115

Post by remon »

pdkl95 wrote: post #57
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

> we just identify the things you're listening to, of course ...by recording the conversation so it can be uploaded to the server that does the recognition, because nobody is doing this kind of processing client-side. Just like the idea that "streaming" is somehow different than "downloading", the commonly-repeated claims that this kind of technology is only "processing" without mentioning where the data is processed…

> because nobody is doing this kind of processing client-side.

This is a half truth at best. Audio recognition can be based on one of two techniques. The first is audio watermarking which is completely client side (albeit not applicable for this FB feature) or fingerprinting. They'll likely use the latter which records a segment of audio, does the rough audio equivalent of a hash on it and then send it the server for an optimised pattern match. It's somewhat unlikely they'll send raw audio to their servers although that's an assumption.

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

#116

Post by remon »

Although I agree with the general concerns raised in this thread FB is not sending raw audio to its servers and thus is not "listening" to you. The majority of work is done on the client-side. Specifically, a short audio sample is analysed client-side and turned into an audio fingerprint (the rough audio equivalent of hashing a value). That fingerprint alone is sent to the server for matching. Note that there is no way to reverse that process (hence the hash analogy) to get audible sounds out of it. Of course, this is all based on the assumption that Facebook is telling it like it is but given the fact that the difference in bandwidth use is an order of magnitude that's very easy to check.

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

#117

Post by Shish2k »

0x0 wrote: post #29
zxcdw wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you, or someone, have any data to back this up? Honest question, I don't use Facebook so I can't tell from experience.

Facebook Messenger vs the main Facebook iOS app, for example?

You mean that time when "having the newsfeed app forces you to use the messaging app and vice versa" started out as forced, and then opt-out, and then opt-in? That seems like the /opposite/ of forcing people to use a given feature :P

(I see what you're trying to say, that people are forced to install two apps instead of installing one - I just disagree that having two separate apps is "forced" while having apps bundled together is "choice")

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

#119

Post by talmand »

georgerobinson wrote: post #108
talmand wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> Why can't I upgrade at the same time as everyone else, like on iOS? Because Google doesn't control updates for your phone and most likely neither does Motorola, complain to your carrier. The carrier has the option to offer a vanilla Android that can be updated whenever new versions are available, but most don't to offer their own customized versions.

I bought the phone from Amazon, SIM-free, so I'm not sure if Vodafone are the right people to complain to here?

Nope, you're probably on your own in that case.

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

#120

Post by talmand »

rplnt wrote: post #103
talmand wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just to be fair, are the 5 android devices non-nexus devices? If so, that's because of the carriers and that's why it's a common problem.

They are. But only one of them was bought through a carrier (so it's "branded"). Others are "OEM", so could be updated by the manufacturer.

Welp, that just sucks. I doubt the manufacturers have as much desire to update as carriers do.
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