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Is Facebook eavesdropping on phone conversations?

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Re: Is Facebook eavesdropping on phone conversations?

#11

Post by dave2000 »

tuxracer wrote: post #8
acutelyobtuse wrote: post #2

Yes. (It's electronic communications, your assumption should be, without a doubt, that someone is listening, seeing, hearing.)

If you RTFA you'd see the claim is that Facebook is activating the microphone to listen to non-electronic verbal communication you're having nearby your phone.

You're missing the point. It doesn't matter at all if there's any evidence that a given claim about a particular version of an app is being tapped; you have to assume that they all are, all the time, and act accordingly. You're never going to know, and certainly not ahead of time; best to assume they're all tapped. Which, as we all know post-Snowden, is the only reasonable assumption.

Re: Is Facebook eavesdropping on phone conversations?

#12

Post by Pengwin »

onewaystreet wrote: post #5

No. This is one of those tech urban legends that keeps popping up. Facebook does have an opt-in feature that can identify what music, tv show or movie you are listening to or watching, but that's it. http://newsroom.fb.com/news/2014/05/a-new-optional-way-to-sh... https://www.facebook.com/help/iphone-app/369513256545845

Evey now and again I see a picture or article being shared around saying Facebook are spying on you and how their apps have all these permissions to use your camera and phone audio.

If they are on android, I tell them to open their system settings and show them how Google Search has just about every privilege on your phone and has had it since they turned it on.

Even if people are concerned they still don't stop using Facebook or android. :/

Re: Is Facebook eavesdropping on phone conversations?

#14

Post by imakesoft »

tlrobinson wrote: post #3

“That is kind of weird,” she laughed. “I’m still not so sure this isn’t just coincidence. I don’t think Facebook is really listening to our conversations.” This is a terrible article. There's an easy way to figure out if it's a coincidence... repeat the experiment.

I agree that the nature of the article is bad but still I would not be surprised to hear that Facebook is listening to phone conversations. That's why I don't use it. :P

Re: Is Facebook eavesdropping on phone conversations?

#15

Post by tiplus »

It sounds like a creepier version of google now which listens for many keywords instead of just one, is it not?

Question for the experts: How much battery would it actually drain if the mic was constantly activated and the app was scanning for keywords. I mean, you could limit the scanning to times were someone actually speaks and otherwise remain in a sleep mode. The keywords are then synced only when the user opens the app.

Did anyone ever check if something similar was mentioned in the google now TOS?

Re: Is Facebook eavesdropping on phone conversations?

#17

Post by yeukhon »

defenestration wrote: post #6

For me, this is one step too far. If my phone is just laying around, it should not record the sound in the room and send it to Facebook by default. Sounds like a fake story, would be worried if this is true.

I tried to reproduce it by keep saying education education. It didn't pick it up. Tried with FB and Messenger. Maybe it doesn't work for me...

Re: Is Facebook eavesdropping on phone conversations?

#18

Post by piyush_soni »

Android M above (N) you can disable various permissions asked by an app. I have disabled everything for Facebook (except storage). No location, contacts, microphone, calendar, phone, sms or even camera. You're not allowed here, facebook. So it can't do much damage for at least those versions of Android.

Re: Is Facebook eavesdropping on phone conversations?

#19

Post by khedoros »

tiplus wrote: post #15

It sounds like a creepier version of google now which listens for many keywords instead of just one, is it not? Question for the experts: How much battery would it actually drain if the mic was constantly activated and the app was scanning for keywords. I mean, you could limit the scanning to times were someone actually speaks and otherwise remain in a sleep mode. The keywords are then synced only when the user opens…

Some devices are always listening for "OK, Google", if you turn that feature on (Nexus 6, Nexus 9, and Samsung Note 4, according to a Google help page [0]). I vaguely remember reading something about a subprocessor in those devices, looking for that phrase, to cut down on battery usage. Most of the speech recognition processing happens remotely on Google's servers, though.

[0] https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/6031948?hl=en

Re: Is Facebook eavesdropping on phone conversations?

#20

Post by abcd_f »

piyush_soni wrote: post #18

Android M above ( N ) you can disable various permissions asked by an app. I have disabled everything for Facebook (except storage). No location, contacts, microphone, calendar, phone, sms or even camera. You're not allowed here, facebook. So it can't do much damage for at least those versions of Android.

Makes you feel being totally in control, doesn't it?
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