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Facebook denies 'listening' to conversations

bbc.com

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Re: Facebook denies 'listening' to conversations

#161

Post by sp527 »

amelius wrote: post #47
sp527 wrote: post #15

Once happened while remarking on the Fruit Loops shake at Burger King. Opened Facebook minutes later and got a Fruit Loops ad. I assure you I don’t message, post, or in any other way remotely suggest an affinity for Fruit Loops. Commenting on it at Burger King was the definition of a one-off incident. I guess another possible explanation is some very sophisticated combination of location tracking and Kellogg’s target…

Perhaps the friend you were talking to about the Fruit Loops shake did a search on Facebook on their smartphone? Anyway, I want a LED on my camera and microphone. And a hardware switch.

Why would any rational human being search ‘Fruit Loops shake’ on Facebook? Let’s also assume for the sake of argument that I only associate with rational people.

Re: Facebook denies 'listening' to conversations

#162

Post by cc81 »

trophycase wrote: post #78

Of course they deny it. Even if they did there is absolutely no way they'd admit it. This article asserts nothing.

On the other hand seeing as this must be done client side then someone should be able to do an investigation and see if Facebook sends voice data to their servers.

And not to mention how many engineers that work on Facebook that could be whistle blowers.

Re: Facebook denies 'listening' to conversations

#163

Post by m_ke »

tfinniga wrote: post #141
rickhanlonii wrote: post #103

They're listening, but not to your voice or with a microphone. Facebook is listening to your data--to all of our data, all at once. They have locations, searches, clicks, messaging, photos, hashtags, and any other form of browsing patterns for everyone in your country, everyone in your neighboorhood, everyone in the same room as you. They have enough data with such advanced analysis that on occasion they can get real…

Right, like the example from Target. It is possible that facebook has access to a stream of Target purchases or credit card purchase information. I'd be 0% surprised if there was a data sharing agreement with credit rating companies. Even if they just knew the price of the purchase, combined with the job (burn risk) and location data (traveled from work to nearest store with pharmacy during the day), it's possible th…

https://www.digitaltrends.com/social-media/facebook-partners...

https://facebookmarketingpartners.com/marketing-partners/ora...

http://adage.com/article/digital/facebook-partner-acxiom-eps...

Re: Facebook denies 'listening' to conversations

#164

Post by madeofpalk »

keketi wrote: post #122
madeofpalk wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How could they respond to remove all doubt they're listening? Edit: https://www.theverge.com/2016/6/3/11854860/facebook-smartpho... In a statement issued on June 2nd [2016], Facebook said it "does not use your phone’s microphone to inform ads or to change what you see in News Feed." That's pretty fucking clear to me. Original comment: If they had said something like "We don't use microphones to gather data to drive p…

Modify their apps to not request microphone permission.

Facebook doesnt request microphone access on iOS.

https://imgur.com/a/ifaiT

Edit: Actually, FB will ask for microphone permission if try to record a video. Based on every other app that records video also prompts for permission to record using the microphone, I'm lead to believe the microphone permission is required on iOS if you want to record video.

FB Messenger does not prompt for Microphone until you record a video or voice memo.

Re: Facebook denies 'listening' to conversations

#165

Post by tedunangst »

keketi wrote: post #122
madeofpalk wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How could they respond to remove all doubt they're listening? Edit: https://www.theverge.com/2016/6/3/11854860/facebook-smartpho... In a statement issued on June 2nd [2016], Facebook said it "does not use your phone’s microphone to inform ads or to change what you see in News Feed." That's pretty fucking clear to me. Original comment: If they had said something like "We don't use microphones to gather data to drive p…

Modify their apps to not request microphone permission.

Apparently people think there's a secret backdoor that lets an iPhone app record audio without turning the status bar red. You could deny mic permission and people would still think it's the secret backdoor.

Re: Facebook denies 'listening' to conversations

#166

Post by madeofpalk »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #108
madeofpalk wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How could they respond to remove all doubt they're listening? Edit: https://www.theverge.com/2016/6/3/11854860/facebook-smartpho... In a statement issued on June 2nd [2016], Facebook said it "does not use your phone’s microphone to inform ads or to change what you see in News Feed." That's pretty fucking clear to me. Original comment: If they had said something like "We don't use microphones to gather data to drive p…

> How could they respond to remove all doubt they're listening? Amend their privacy policy.

How? Where's the limit? Should they list everything they don't do in their privacy policy?

Re: Facebook denies 'listening' to conversations

#167

Post by tfinniga »

sillysaurus3 wrote: post #146
tfinniga wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is your question why privacy is important, or are you thinking of something else?

They have to respect our privacy. The moment they don't, it will cause widespread outrage. Once I realized that, it was hard to think of reasons why their actions are wrong.

Facebook is amassing a huge amount of valuable information on every member.

I disagree that the threat of outrage is sufficient to stop the information being used badly. For example, there is outrage against Equifax, but their cache of information has still been compromised. We have seen data leak after data leak from various companies. If a country's spy agencies want to go after the data, they have a lot of resources, from hacking to legislation to physical intrusion or coercion.

Add to that, it seems like Facebook doesn't institutionally care about privacy (probably because it is hard to explain something to someone whose paycheck depends on them not understanding it). For example, http://actualfacebookgraphsearches.tumblr.com has some very damaging graph searches. Or people who have been outed as gay by incomprehensible privacy settings.

Facebook is a sieve, and the reason to care about them having a lot of information is the same reason to care about privacy in general.

Re: Facebook denies 'listening' to conversations

#168

Post by edanm »

flashman wrote: post #121
rickhanlonii wrote: post #103

They're listening, but not to your voice or with a microphone. Facebook is listening to your data--to all of our data, all at once. They have locations, searches, clicks, messaging, photos, hashtags, and any other form of browsing patterns for everyone in your country, everyone in your neighboorhood, everyone in the same room as you. They have enough data with such advanced analysis that on occasion they can get real…

> Turing test Sorry to 'actually' you but that's phrased like Clarke's third law: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarke%27s_three_laws

True, but I have to say that I appreciated both references.

Re: Facebook denies 'listening' to conversations

#169

Post by tedunangst »

bhouston wrote: post #91
ojosilva wrote: post #89

But has anyone scientifically validated any of these assumptions? It doesn't seem very hard. Speak, then visit pages with FB ads and take note. Seems like the internets has taken these serious accusations as some sort of corporate conspiracy but I haven't seen any independent, credible study of how Facebook's apps (confirmed) access to microphone are actually being translated into ads.

Can not one decompile the Facebook app, or just somehow instrument it to see when it accesses the microphone feed?

None of the people who think this is happening can.

Re: Facebook denies 'listening' to conversations

#170

Post by StavrosK »

bhouston wrote: post #91
ojosilva wrote: post #89

But has anyone scientifically validated any of these assumptions? It doesn't seem very hard. Speak, then visit pages with FB ads and take note. Seems like the internets has taken these serious accusations as some sort of corporate conspiracy but I haven't seen any independent, credible study of how Facebook's apps (confirmed) access to microphone are actually being translated into ads.

Can not one decompile the Facebook app, or just somehow instrument it to see when it accesses the microphone feed?

Can one not do network traffic analysis to see what it sends? Would it be that hard?
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