By the way, why use the Facebook app when you can have a shortcut to Facebook.com on the home screen ? ... Make it a "mbasic.facebook.com" shortcut, it will allow using private messages without the need for Messenger. Discovered here on Hacker News, thanks!
Facebook app listens in the background for targeting ads
11–14 of 14 posts
Re: Facebook app listens in the background for targeting ads
#12Simple question. Is there a way to reverse engineer the app or sniff its network traffic (to find clues) to find out if this is real or not ?
Re: Facebook app listens in the background for targeting ads
#13If people really think that's the case why don't they uninstall facebook immediately?
They do and use the browser instead, doubling their battery life and halfing their data usage. Sending all this audio is pretty expensive it seems.
Re: Facebook app listens in the background for targeting ads
#14I had 2 instances where this happened to me recently. Once was with Twitter and once with Facebook. Mentioned Disney parks in a conversation in the car with my parents and the next day had Disney ads, never before. About 2 days ago was talking about night guards for teeth with someone and the next day had Invisalign ads on Facebook. I don't have the Facebook app installed, but do have the messenger app. I just turned…
Family got off the Interstate to get gas. We verbally considered Speedway -- a couple hundred yards up the road but then saw that the closer Mobile was easier to drive to and had the same price. Never drove to the Speedway. Never touched the smart phone with regard to it.
Some hours later, saw my first ever Speedway ad on Facebook. Never seen one before, even after pulling off at other exits having Speedways, for gas, and IIRC even filling up at one a time or two. (Note that I keep Android location services turned off on my phone.)
This is not the first time in the past couple of years that I've seen an ad or "Suggested" content on Facebook that relates to something that was only discussed verbally, a short time prior.