I used to dismiss these rumors as paranoia/conspiracy theories in a maybe naive application of Occam's razor. But concrete leaks and tech news of recent years made me a believer. I sure believe Facebook is capable of this, nowadays. The only thing that makes me skeptical is that there should be reproduceable cases someone has documented for concrete evidence. All I ever hear is anecdotes.
Facebook denies 'listening' to conversations
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Re: Facebook denies 'listening' to conversations
#32Like webcams, microphones should (and even be required to) have a status LED.
Re: Facebook denies 'listening' to conversations
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
I was once sitting at a bar having a beer, chatting with the bartender (one of my best friends) and the guy sitting next to me, whom I had never met before. I pulled out my phone to show my friend something that had been posted on Facebook and, while browsing Facebook right after that, the app showed the guy sitting right next to me as the first person under "People You May Know". I had not "checked in" or posted any…
After Obama’s comments on the NSA surveillance program back when sh*t was hitting the fan, I’m always keenly parsing these kinds of statements for word play. There’s usually a way out of accountability and liability through evasive rhetoric.
I agree. Really, I don't see why Facebook wouldn't monitor audio like this for targeting ads. If you make money from serving ads, that seems like exactly the kind of thing you would want to do.
Like you, I have gotten pretty good at noticing "weasel words" and such in the government's statements (denials). It is clear that they take their time to make sure they word their statements ever so carefully.
Re: Facebook denies 'listening' to conversations
#34I used to dismiss these rumors as paranoia/conspiracy theories in a maybe naive application of Occam's razor. But concrete leaks and tech news of recent years made me a believer. I sure believe Facebook is capable of this, nowadays. The only thing that makes me skeptical is that there should be reproduceable cases someone has documented for concrete evidence. All I ever hear is anecdotes.
> concrete leaks and tech news of recent years
which ones do you mean?
Re: Facebook denies 'listening' to conversations
#35I used to dismiss these rumors as paranoia/conspiracy theories in a maybe naive application of Occam's razor. But concrete leaks and tech news of recent years made me a believer. I sure believe Facebook is capable of this, nowadays. The only thing that makes me skeptical is that there should be reproduceable cases someone has documented for concrete evidence. All I ever hear is anecdotes.
>All I ever hear is anecdotes.
The fact that there is no hard evidence makes me very skeptical.
Every anecdote is explainable another way. Someone in the comments said they were having a conversation about storage units and saw an ad for storage units immediately after. Even if they had never searched for storage units -- and can we really be sure? That would be easy to forget -- Facebook might just have extrapolated they they would need a storage unit from related searches, like searching for a moving company.
I would be willing to bet this type of algorithmic extrapolation explains every one of the microphone-ad-conspiracy stories.
Re: Facebook denies 'listening' to conversations
#36I don't play golf or have any interest in it, but I was talking to my brother about him using golf carts on his farm as vehicles. I kept getting golf cart adverts in Facebook for the next month. Maybe it used location data to suggest we might be interested in the same thing, but it was a bit weird.
Re: Facebook denies 'listening' to conversations
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
After Obama’s comments on the NSA surveillance program back when sh*t was hitting the fan, I’m always keenly parsing these kinds of statements for word play. There’s usually a way out of accountability and liability through evasive rhetoric.
I agree. Really, I don't see why Facebook wouldn't monitor audio like this for targeting ads. If you make money from serving ads, that seems like exactly the kind of thing you would want to do. Like you, I have gotten pretty good at noticing "weasel words" and such in the government's statements (denials). It is clear that they take their time to make sure they word their statements ever so carefully.
> Really, I don't see why Facebook wouldn't monitor audio like this for targeting ads.
Horrible battery life?
Re: Facebook denies 'listening' to conversations
#38I know that smart TVs and the now defunct Kinect have the ability to monitor conversations. Hell I remember when I first used Soundhound! I was flabbergasted, what will they think of next.
But I also know corporations are usually scrupulous about following laws so unless there is something in Facebook's ToS/EULA that mentions doing this I'm skeptical.
Re: Facebook denies 'listening' to conversations
#39I know that smart TVs and the now defunct Kinect have the ability to monitor conversations. Hell I remember when I first used Soundhound! I was flabbergasted, what will they think of next. But I also know corporations are usually scrupulous about following laws so unless there is something in Facebook's ToS/EULA that mentions doing this I'm skeptical.
Um... VW?
Re: Facebook denies 'listening' to conversations
#40One thing I've wondered was that Facebook began showing the recent photos you'd taken at the top of the app, and prompted you to share them. Are they sending every photo you take to their servers to feed it back to you at the top of your stream? I realize they could implement this feature by displaying local photos without sending them to their servers, but I've never seen confirmation that photos remain on your device only until you post. I uninstalled the app awhile back, so maybe they don't do this anymore, but anybody have any insights into how they handle your photos?