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Is Facebook eavesdropping on phone conversations?

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Re: Is Facebook eavesdropping on phone conversations?

#201

Post by revscat »

anysz wrote: post #128
nutmeg wrote: 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…

+1 This happened to me at the supermarket. Super cute cashier girl. No idea what her name is. As I'm heading out I open up my news feed and what do you know? There she is in recommended friends. WTF

Had the same thing happen to me after a date. We met on a dating site, agreed to meet for drinks. I never even knew her last name. The date didn't go well, so we ended it early. Afterwards, she showed up on my recommended friends list, and I assume I on hers.

Creepy.

Re: Is Facebook eavesdropping on phone conversations?

#202

Post by chris_wot »

emerongi wrote: post #105
chris_wot wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that if Facebook was caught doing this after they specifically denied it, then executives would probably be going to jail. I think if Facebook say they aren't doing this, then they aren't doing it.

Even IF this was true, do you really think the executives on their meetings go like: "Okay, if we deny this, we will go to jail. So let's tell everyone that we are spying on them!" No. Denying is the only smart move here.

Just to be clear, are you positing that Facebook is actually doing what the article accuses it of doing?

Re: Is Facebook eavesdropping on phone conversations?

#203

Post by chris_wot »

ceejayoz wrote: post #135
chris_wot wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That page doesn't say that exact quote.

Believe it or not, support FAQs occasionally get copy tweaks.

How does LukeB_uk know that this is the document the article used to source that statement? Does he have an old copy?

Genuinely curious as the page he's referred me to seems to document a U.S. only feature you need to specifically turn on when you update your status.

Re: Is Facebook eavesdropping on phone conversations?

#204

Post by chris_wot »

astazangasta wrote: post #172
dpcx wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No more creepy than Shazam or SoundHound. You'd be amazed at the number of people that want to share the song they're listening to, or the show they're watching, as part of a status update.

This should happen based on active request, not passively by snoop-mic.

Except that I believe you need to turn the feature on:

https://m.facebook.com/help/iphone-app/1499418503612943

Got this from someone else's Google search, apparent it took them less than a minute to find this, their Google-fu is clearly greater than my own :-)

Re: Is Facebook eavesdropping on phone conversations?

#205

Post by madmax96 »

eric_h wrote: post #171
madmax96 wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It'd be interesting if there were a party with a JailBroken iPhone and the Facebook App installed who would check the network traffic.

Would a jailbreak really be necessary for this? Couldn't you just install a certificate on the phone and MitM the https traffic?

That would be a lot simpler:)

Re: Is Facebook eavesdropping on phone conversations?

#206

Post by flying_kangaroo »

dionidium wrote: post #200
cylinder wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

On the flip-side, (again, anecdotal sample-size-1) I've noticed a definite improvement in battery life after uninstalling the app, and I definitely don't needs any of Facebook's notifications to propagate through via the app.

Re: Is Facebook eavesdropping on phone conversations?

#207

Post by zghst »

revscat wrote: post #201
anysz wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

+1 This happened to me at the supermarket. Super cute cashier girl. No idea what her name is. As I'm heading out I open up my news feed and what do you know? There she is in recommended friends. WTF

Had the same thing happen to me after a date. We met on a dating site, agreed to meet for drinks. I never even knew her last name. The date didn't go well, so we ended it early. Afterwards, she showed up on my recommended friends list, and I assume I on hers. Creepy.

I think FB does matching with phone number, if they have your presumed phone number in your contacts, it will link you in the graph

Re: Is Facebook eavesdropping on phone conversations?

#208

Post by bunkydoo »

Well, either we are going to see a Facebook exodus happen due to privacy concerns (unlikely) or now almost everyone is comfortable being watched 24/7 and the next wave of apps cough SNAPCHAT will learn to exploit people recording every moment of their lives thinking it actually goes away. (unfortunate)

Re: Is Facebook eavesdropping on phone conversations?

#209

Post by brightshiny »

joshstrange wrote: post #151
koyote wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very off-topic but what is your real-world use case for such an app? The site lists a couple but most of those seem to make more sense when using a recording app in the traditional, explicit, way (e.g. "we are having a meeting, I will record this meeting").

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…

What is STT?

Re: Is Facebook eavesdropping on phone conversations?

#210

Post by r00fus »

tremon wrote: post #103
r00fus wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you're saying the client indexes your words locally and then e2e encrypts and sends to the person whom you're conversing with? Is that feasible client-side without burning all your battery?

The cpu is not the most power-consuming component of your device: the radio and display both consume more power than the processor. According to [1], the cpu typically accounts for only 10%-20% of power usage. However, a secondary stream from the app to a different endpoint would be detectable, so there are other practical challenges to the GP's scenario. [1] https://www.usenix.org/event/usenix10/tech/full_papers/Car…

Couldn't it be a secondary stream to the same endpoint but using a different keying (ie, encryption with server's pubkey) mechanism (the metadata then wouldn't be E2E encrypted, but that's not covered in WhatsApp's E2E security page)?
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