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Is Facebook eavesdropping on phone conversations?

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Re: Is Facebook eavesdropping on phone conversations?

#31

Post by capitalsigma »

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.

99% sure this is not a coincidence, here's my theory: people's IRL conversations can be pretty reliably predicted by their Facebook conversations, so targeted ads based on messages tend to be surprisingly relevant to the next thing they talk about IRL.

Example: my girlfriend was given a box of Flonase by her parents and immediately got a Facebook ad for it. She had not mentioned Flonase anywhere on Facebook ever. Spoopy eavesdropping? No --- she did talk on Facebook about her ENT appointment that morning. And what products might be relevant for someone going to an ENT doctor? Allergy medication.

And in cases like that, it's very likely that your two recommendations from different sources will happen to match --- what brand of medication are your parents likely to recommend? A popular one that spends a lot of $ on advertising. What brand is likely to buy ads? A popular one that spends a lot of $ on advertising.

Re: Is Facebook eavesdropping on phone conversations?

#32

Post by harryf »

Pengwin wrote: post #12
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 usin…

> Facebook are spying on you and how their apps have all these permissions to use your camera and phone audio.

And it's not just the Facebook apps. The Facebook SDK is widely embedded into many other apps Facebook SDK (it's the most popular SDK on iOS for example, according to data published from Cocoapods - https://gist.github.com/ryanolsonk/e33bf9e89677da9fe8ce ). It's so popular because Facebook is basically the most effective network to run so called "App Install Ads" and embedding their SDK providers marketers essential data for tuning their targeting and ad spend.

The SDK gives Facebook access to a ton of additional usage data which they can link together with anything they already have on your from their apps. It also _potentially_ gives them the ability to exploit any permissions given to the host app which embedded the SDK. Now they publish the source of the SDK openly ( https://github.com/facebook/facebook-ios-sdk ) but it certainly would harm anyone if there was more independent scrutiny given to analysing the source and whether there's anything else we're not seeing that go into the final SDK downloads.

Re: Is Facebook eavesdropping on phone conversations?

#33

Post by dawnerd »

13hours wrote: post #7

The impact on battery life alone would be insane if this wee true I'm guessing.

Funny you mention that:

http://bgr.com/2016/02/01/facebook-android-app-battery-life-...

http://www.cnet.com/how-to/improve-iphone-battery-life-delet...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/facebook-iphone-battery-...

Now is that because of voice? Very unlikely.

Re: Is Facebook eavesdropping on phone conversations?

#34

Post by eddz »

pmontra wrote: post #30

Just use the mobile web site. I'm doing it because of the zillion of permissions the FB app ask and it is good enough. However they could do it with Whatsapp. There is no alternative to that.

There are plenty of alternatives to Whatsapp. I don't even have it installed on my phone.

Re: Is Facebook eavesdropping on phone conversations?

#35

Post by petr_tik »

As one of the people said below, there is an easy way to test the validity of that statement – take 30+ participants with randomly selected backgrounds and friend networks and break them into 2 groups for different ‘trigger word’ and then study their newsfeeds.

It seems that there is a subgenre of geek-oriented clickbaiting, which has a strong claim about something tech-related like AMAZGOOGBOOK with little proof or scientific study. We, as a community, can be better at identifying and pointing out deficiencies in the scientific method, instead of saying ‘I’m not sure they do it, but it would be scary, if they did’.

The story about uber tracking your battery status is legit and has been proven and I don’t remember it climbing as high as no 2 on the front page, so IMO we can readjust our BS-meters.

Re: Is Facebook eavesdropping on phone conversations?

#36

Post by rosege »

eddz wrote: post #34
pmontra wrote: post #30

Just use the mobile web site. I'm doing it because of the zillion of permissions the FB app ask and it is good enough. However they could do it with Whatsapp. There is no alternative to that.

There are plenty of alternatives to Whatsapp. I don't even have it installed on my phone.

getting all your friends/colleagues to switch is the hard part

Re: Is Facebook eavesdropping on phone conversations?

#37

Post by therealmarv »

eddz wrote: post #34
pmontra wrote: post #30

Just use the mobile web site. I'm doing it because of the zillion of permissions the FB app ask and it is good enough. However they could do it with Whatsapp. There is no alternative to that.

There are plenty of alternatives to Whatsapp. I don't even have it installed on my phone.

It's not about the program. It's about the network... you cannot switch a network when all your friends and colleagues use WhatsApp and their groups. But I'm happy WhatsApp is more secure than most of the alternatives with good E2E encryption support.

Re: Is Facebook eavesdropping on phone conversations?

#38

Post by x5n1 »

petr_tik wrote: post #35

As one of the people said below, there is an easy way to test the validity of that statement – take 30+ participants with randomly selected backgrounds and friend networks and break them into 2 groups for different ‘trigger word’ and then study their newsfeeds. It seems that there is a subgenre of geek-oriented clickbaiting, which has a strong claim about something tech-related like AMAZGOOGBOOK with little proof or…

I think the days of giving corporations benefit of doubt are long gone. Now if outrageous claim is made by any sort of reasonably credible source, you can be sure there is an ounce of truth to it. So yes FB probably does do this, and people claiming conspiracy to discredit this are the crazy ones.

Re: Is Facebook eavesdropping on phone conversations?

#39

Post by Nullabillity »

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.

For the record, that feature was added in Marshmallow, not N.

Re: Is Facebook eavesdropping on phone conversations?

#40

Post by eps »

abcd_f wrote: post #20
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?

Sarcasm doesn't do well on HN. Just FYI.
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