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Is Facebook eavesdropping on phone conversations?

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Re: Is Facebook eavesdropping on phone conversations?

#91

Post by nxzero »

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

Be a stretch to call this an urban legend, unless you're saying the people referenced in the story don't exist.

That said, this is lazy & irresponsible reporting on what is at best a singlural event.

If it was reproduced, this is clearly a violation of Facebooks terms of service, regardless of if the user has opted to let Facebook listen to the music and TV that's playing in the background.

Re: Is Facebook eavesdropping on phone conversations?

#92

Post by mtgx »

tdkl wrote: post #58
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

That's what they say. One of the urban legends was also that USA government agencies don't collect data at bulk and they were lying about it. We know the truth now. Facebook has been caught with the hand in the cookie jar too many times already and got away with it. Fuck Facebook.

And every time they say "Whoopsie, it was just a bug - we'll fix it!". And then they don't. Or they come back 3 years later and say "Hey everyone, remember that 'bug' you caught earlier? We're going to make it into a beautiful feature now!".

Re: Is Facebook eavesdropping on phone conversations?

#93

Post by awqrre »

Aoyagi wrote: post #52
drcross wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> with good E2E encryption support. They say there is good E2E encryption. Great claims require great proof.

The only great proof would be opensourcing it completely, and I don't see that happening. Then again, Moxie said he himself oversaw the implementation of the encryption and that he has trust in it...

Even if they implemented correctly, it doesn't mean that they didn't add a backdoor for the government.

Re: Is Facebook eavesdropping on phone conversations?

#94

Post by Karlozkiller »

I think it was about 2 years ago that the Facebook android app requested permission to your microphone? As soon as I saw that I warned everyone I knew that they could be listened in on, and uninstalled the app on my phone, using FB through a browser if need be.

I find it interesting how people accept such things without a question. But I guess articles like these are good even if they're late to the party.

Re: Is Facebook eavesdropping on phone conversations?

#95

Post by reitanqild »

darkandbrooding wrote: post #86
reitanqild wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For a very real example of facebook bias a group created two Facebook groups full of similar hatred but directed at two different ethnic groups. One was shut down almost immediately, one was still up when the video was posted. Won't name them as I don't want to drag politics into HN but I am fairly convinced it is repeatable (and if anyone is interested in giving it a try I can try to dig out a reference and post.)

Interesting experiment, but two groups seems like a too small a sample. If moderation is done by humans, you could simply prove that one moderator had a worse morning than the other, or that through luck of the draw Group A went to a sympathetic moderator while group B did not. That could demonstrate individual bias, but not institutional. If moderation is automated, how do you control for the weight of keywords, phr…

> Maybe Group A was full of statements that almost threw a flag but not quite, while Group B contained mostly innocuous wording but (only) one phrase that actually got flagged.

Couple of months since I saw this, so can't say for sure but I think a major point of the experiment was that the two "hate groups" were equal except which ethnic group they were directed at.

Re: Is Facebook eavesdropping on phone conversations?

#96

Post by Karlozkiller »

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

The android app asks for microphone privilege as of a few years back when they introduced the listen-in feature. The problem here to me, is that when they add the voluntary feature they force everyone to give the app all the permissions needed as well. By doing this your phone has no way of stopping the app from misbehaving as it has given permission for it to do so.

At least that was the case when the feature came out. I think I read something about android now letting you filter permissions and not blindly accept all that an app asks for?

Re: Is Facebook eavesdropping on phone conversations?

#97

Post by Aoyagi »

awqrre wrote: post #93
Aoyagi wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only great proof would be opensourcing it completely, and I don't see that happening. Then again, Moxie said he himself oversaw the implementation of the encryption and that he has trust in it...

Even if they implemented correctly, it doesn't mean that they didn't add a backdoor for the government.

To quote him:

"I was very closely involved for the integration, had full access to the source code, did plenty of review, and have a lot of confidence in the engineers that are maintaining it.

There are plenty of engineers in the world who are capable of inspecting the binaries they're distributing, so it would be incredibly risky of them to inject surveillance code client side."

Re: Is Facebook eavesdropping on phone conversations?

#98

Post by chdhxhhd »

HappyTypist wrote: post #61
imakesoft wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I work for Facebook. This does not happen. If it does, I can assure you that one of the many thousands of engineers will speak out.

So far they've had no qualms with Favebook's other unethical activities, so I don't see why this would be any different.

Re: Is Facebook eavesdropping on phone conversations?

#99

Post by tremon »

MichaelGG wrote: post #21
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

FB just recently shot their credibility though by making statements that seemed very dishonest regarding their content bias. I don't think it's a big issue but it'll look that way. It'll cause people to think twice -- who knows, maybe next week FB will announce "a bug in the code sometimes accidentally listened to a few users' phone calls" and "we are reviewing our auditing mechanisms to ensure this doesn't happen ag…

maybe next week FB will announce "a bug in the code"

Or they will explain how it was "a rogue employee" who put the code there undetected, and caused it to spread to millions of devices.

Re: Is Facebook eavesdropping on phone conversations?

#100

Post by tremon »

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.

Repeating the experiment wouldn't disprove the assertion. What you would be testing is "(a) Facebook is really listening to our conversations and (b) consistently responds to it in this way". A negative second test could never disprove (a), however a positive test would confirm both (a) and (b).
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