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Facebook denies 'listening' to conversations

bbc.com

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Re: Facebook denies 'listening' to conversations

#181

Post by brad0 »

tenpies wrote: post #142
qbrass wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see how it's beneficial to the advertiser when the person has already bought the product before they've seen the ad? It sounds like someone is trying to game the advertiser by correlating ad views with sales.

> It sounds like someone is trying to game the advertiser by correlating ad views with sales. Shhh. If advertisers realize how utterly wasted most of their advertising spending is you'll destroy about 80% of "tech" companies and plunge the world into a global recession.

To be fair, coke can't get many new customers buying their product. Yet they spend quite a bit of money advertising their product so that their existing users keep purchasing.

Re: Facebook denies 'listening' to conversations

#182

Post by tedunangst »

mikeash wrote: post #160
sillysaurus3 wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Remember when Target snitched to a teenager’s parents that she was pregnant because her purchases fit the “is pregnant” profile, and everyone got outraged, and they stopped profiling people? Actually, only the first two things happened.

Actually, only one of those things happened, the one in the middle. I'll let you dig into Forbes's "sources" to figure out how they managed to twist a hypothetical into something that already happened.

Re: Facebook denies 'listening' to conversations

#183

Post by 0898 »

cooper12 wrote: post #100
Overtonwindow wrote: post #76

I think the risk versus reward for Facebook and other companies is very high. All things being equal, I think it's more likely than not they will record things, will listen for words you say, and use that. The risk is enormous if it comes out with proof, but let's say they only listen a small percentage of the time, that kind of AI analysis is priceless.

I doubt it will make a difference to most people. The staunch pro-privacy stance really only exists on tech-savvy forums like HN. Go on reddit sometimes and observe how people will say "so what if Google has all my info, it's useful and free". If Zuckerberg calling his users dumb fucks for trusting him didn't get them off the platform, a "small" privacy violation like this won't either.

When did Zuckerberg say that?

Re: Facebook denies 'listening' to conversations

#184

Post by randycupertino »

austinhutch wrote: post #113

I was skeptical until I experienced an ad in my feed which in my estimation could only attribute to data captured by a conversation had hours earlier. Of course there is the possibility of coincidence but I find it hard to believe. I took advantage of the option to see why I was shown the ad, and was told demographic information, as well as a data partnership with DLX. I would like to know if others who see and ad th…

It did something very similar to me and really made me second guess myself, but there is no other explanation other than it used my microphone to listen to my conversation at work. I felt so paranoid about it and was very weirded out.

My backpack zipper broke when I was walking to work. When I arrived at work I told my coworker I needed to buy a new backpack. She and I talked in her office about what type of backpacks her son liked, did they have enough pockets, are the zippers strong. I never used my phone to google anything about backpacks, never looked anything or searched for a new backpack online. That same afternoon- boom backpack ads in my facebook feed. Totally creepy.

Re: Facebook denies 'listening' to conversations

#185

Post by IanCal »

cyberferret wrote: post #149

I was totally skeptical when I first heard stories about people's feeds being curated to suit what they were talking about in front of their computers, but then a couple of things made me rethink my views. I was in the car with my friend once (both our phones were in the car with us too), and we were driving and it started raining. His wiper blades were shoddy and doing a bad job of clearing his windscreen. We had a…

This is called the "Frequency Illusion" (also often called / a similar thing is called the "Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon").

Re: Facebook denies 'listening' to conversations

#186

Post by ggreer »

mikeash wrote: post #172
comboy wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are some videos of people who did exactly that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4&v=U0SOxb_Lfps

I thought iPhone apps couldn’t silently listen to the microphone.

That's correct. Apps must request access to the microphone, and iOS shows an indicator while the app is recording.

This is pure confirmation bias. If someone tests this and doesn't get a relevant ad from Facebook, they won't upload a video or tell their friends. Note that even in this confirming case, it took two days before the guy saw a cat food ad. We don't know how many other ads he scrolled by before that one.

Re: Facebook denies 'listening' to conversations

#188

Post by IanCal »

randycupertino wrote: post #184
austinhutch wrote: post #113

I was skeptical until I experienced an ad in my feed which in my estimation could only attribute to data captured by a conversation had hours earlier. Of course there is the possibility of coincidence but I find it hard to believe. I took advantage of the option to see why I was shown the ad, and was told demographic information, as well as a data partnership with DLX. I would like to know if others who see and ad th…

It did something very similar to me and really made me second guess myself, but there is no other explanation other than it used my microphone to listen to my conversation at work. I felt so paranoid about it and was very weirded out. My backpack zipper broke when I was walking to work. When I arrived at work I told my coworker I needed to buy a new backpack. She and I talked in her office about what type of backpack…

> but there is no other explanation other than it used my microphone to listen to my conversation at work

You'd have not noticed if you saw a backpack advert at some other time. Just how many adverts do you see that aren't standing out? Huge amounts, probably.

This could be quite easily explained by the frequency illusion.

Re: Facebook denies 'listening' to conversations

#189

Post by mikeash »

tedunangst wrote: post #182
mikeash wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Remember when Target snitched to a teenager’s parents that she was pregnant because her purchases fit the “is pregnant” profile, and everyone got outraged, and they stopped profiling people? Actually, only the first two things happened.

Actually, only one of those things happened, the one in the middle. I'll let you dig into Forbes's "sources" to figure out how they managed to twist a hypothetical into something that already happened.

I did a quick search and found a Forbes article based on a New York Times article which claims it really happened:

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/magazine/shopping-habi...

It is possible that their source was lying or mistaken, of course.

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