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Is Facebook eavesdropping on phone conversations?

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Re: Is Facebook eavesdropping on phone conversations?

#191
post #116

Another anecdotal-data-of-sample-size-one, my wife was at a bar and struck up a conversation with another person to whom she had no connections. After she left, Facebook suggested this person as a friend. The other person may have searched for her on Facebook, causing her to be listed as a possible friend. Or perhaps Facebook uses location data to group people that are in the same location for an extended period of t…

People who I've searched for always appear as recommendations afterwards. My best guess is that this is a reverse of that, your wife was searched and so got the recommendation. I still don't like it though.

Re: Is Facebook eavesdropping on phone conversations?

#192

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 o…

Yes, android 6 now asks you about each permission the first time an app tries to do something that requires that permission.

Re: Is Facebook eavesdropping on phone conversations?

#193
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facebook is you spying on yourself, by posting it all that info.

I'm not deliberately live streaming every conversation I have all day onto my feed.

Same here but you'd be surprised by how many people I know and you know post 1000 photos of every moment of their summer vacation on a trip. It scares me that they keep uploading all that there

Re: Is Facebook eavesdropping on phone conversations?

#194
post #116

Another anecdotal-data-of-sample-size-one, my wife was at a bar and struck up a conversation with another person to whom she had no connections. After she left, Facebook suggested this person as a friend. The other person may have searched for her on Facebook, causing her to be listed as a possible friend. Or perhaps Facebook uses location data to group people that are in the same location for an extended period of t…

The location data thing is something Google+ used to use to recommend friends, so I can't see why Facebook wouldn't.

Re: Is Facebook eavesdropping on phone conversations?

#195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> No. I work for Facebook. This doesn't happen. You work for a company with 1000s of employees. How are you exactly in a position to confirm this doesn't happen?

Engineers have access to code repositories.

Oh cool! So based on your comments, you've done an audit of all related code repositories and libraries to confirm?

I'm sure a Facebook engineer COULD find out if Facebook is doing this - but just working at Facebook is not sufficient enough to say for certain it does not happen, you need to actually do the required investigation.

---

I don't personally think Facebook is listening in the way suggested here, key word would be _think_ though. And unless you're saying you've audited the code repositories, you're limited to your _opinion_ based on the context you have from working within the company.

You cannot say it doesn't happen with any level of certainty (as you've tried) just because you have access to the code repositories.

Re: Is Facebook eavesdropping on phone conversations?

#196
post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So honestly it's best use case is "gotcha". As in you didn't know I was recording and you said something stupid and now I have a recording. Likewise if you are talking to someone and you say something along the lines of "Are you sure about that?" or "Can you confirm this is what/how you want me to do this" and then you record the audio for later incase they come back and say "I never said that". For myself I went the…

Besides the creepiness, the law around recording people without them knowing (one-party consent) is state-by-state

I Iive in a one-party consent state, I checked before I tested it.

Re: Is Facebook eavesdropping on phone conversations?

#197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So honestly it's best use case is "gotcha". As in you didn't know I was recording and you said something stupid and now I have a recording. Likewise if you are talking to someone and you say something along the lines of "Are you sure about that?" or "Can you confirm this is what/how you want me to do this" and then you record the audio for later incase they come back and say "I never said that". For myself I went the…

How often do you record other people?

I said about I don't do it anymore, I'm not sure what you are trying to ask here.

Re: Is Facebook eavesdropping on phone conversations?

#198
post #116

Another anecdotal-data-of-sample-size-one, my wife was at a bar and struck up a conversation with another person to whom she had no connections. After she left, Facebook suggested this person as a friend. The other person may have searched for her on Facebook, causing her to be listed as a possible friend. Or perhaps Facebook uses location data to group people that are in the same location for an extended period of t…

>The other person may have searched for her on Facebook, causing her to be listed as a possible friend. Or perhaps Facebook uses location data to group people that are in the same location for an extended period of time.

Probably the first -- since I, and millions of people, stay with hundreds of people we don't know for the same period of time and more (in bars, airports, workplaces, queues, concerts, shops, etc), and they still are not suggested to us.

Re: Is Facebook eavesdropping on phone conversations?

#199

https://mbasic.facebook.com has been amazing for me. I don't have Messenger nor Facebook on my phone, it's a faster and data plan friendly alternative. Not to mention no notifications.

There is also Facebook Lite app, which is the Facebook app but made for people with 2G and underpowered phones in the developing world. Surprisingly, it runs really well on modern phones with LTE connections.

Re: Is Facebook eavesdropping on phone conversations?

#200
post #116

Another anecdotal-data-of-sample-size-one, my wife was at a bar and struck up a conversation with another person to whom she had no connections. After she left, Facebook suggested this person as a friend. The other person may have searched for her on Facebook, causing her to be listed as a possible friend. Or perhaps Facebook uses location data to group people that are in the same location for an extended period of t…

Why do people keep the Facebook app installed? I use it in the web browser and it works just fine, while sort of sandboxing it within Chrome.

I actually tried this on iOS a few months ago. The experience was far worse -- felt slower, less responsive, harder to navigate -- so I re-installed the app.
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