Facebook is using your phone's mic to snoop on you

After a phone conversation I had last week, I noticed the targeted ads within my Facebook feed (mobile) changed to reflect the nature of my conversation.
Odd I thought, and dismissed it thinking I must have made an internet search previously although I was pretty sure I hadn’t.

Fast forward to this week and it appears to have made the technology press!

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/05/31/facebook_is_listening/

That’s some pretty evil tactics Facebook.
I wonder how long before STW takes this approach!

Either way, beware people 🙂

Perchypanther for Christmas Perchypanther for Christmas Perchypanther for Christmas Perchypanther for Christmas Perchypanther for Christmas Perchypanther for christmas Perchypanther for Christmas Perchypanther for Christmas Perchypanther for Christmas Perchypanther for Christmas
And duct tape
And cake

Is a shit app anyway. Got rid of it ages ago and made my MotoG 4g miles faster and saved loads of internal memory.

Doesn’t Siri and the Google voice app on Android do pretty much the same thing?

I’ve got nothing interesting to say. If they want to listen, they can carry on.

Nope. The difference between siri et al is that they require an activation word before it starts listening and switches itself off after. Besides, they have a use.
This is always on and used purely for no other reason than collecting information about you to target you with ads.

Nope. The difference between siri et al is that they require an activation word before it starts listening and switches itself off after. Besides, they have a use.
This is always on and used purely for no other reason than collecting information about you to target you with ads.

Think about that..

Or depending on what version of android you have, you can go into permissions for the app and disable the ability to use your mic and other bits.

It will be interesting to see how countries like Germany react, they have much stricter privacy laws than the UK or US. I suspect that this will be in breach of those, but they haven’t always been willing to use them in recent times.

I just don’t see how Facebook have enough processing power to analyse the conversations of every body who has installed the app (which stretches into the hundreds of millions if not billions of people). The story seems to agree that there’s no evidence of this happening. It’s not to say the app doesn’t have the mic active but I just don’t see that it’d be possible to process things. Also, it’d show up on your data constantly as voice bandwidth isn’t really that light if it’s sending every word it hears.

Atlaz: Who says the compute is done at the back end? It would be a shame to waste all those spare CPU cycles on your hugely powerful 4 core phone? I’ll just send the results back to Facebook. Much more bandwidth friendly
Gears_suck: I agree that siri will be used for nefarious means also, but at least it has a façade of usefulness. It’s the sneaky tactics by Facebook I object to.

So in an app around 100Mb in size, Facebook have worked out how to do voice transcription for all major global languages? Smart people. Cortana, Siri, Google Voice etc all work by sending the voice data to servers for analysis as it’s really quite complex.

Tinfoil hats on

Cortana, Siri, Google Voice etc all work by sending the voice data to servers for analysis as it’s really quite complex.

Not necessarily, you can download (at least on the latest versions of Android) offline voice recognition.

If your device isn’t running JellyBean, you will need Internet connectivity for the voice input to work. If your device is running JellyBean, you can go to Settings | Language & Input | Voice Search and download the offline speech recognition pack.
From: http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/software-engineer/make-your-next-android-app-a-good-listener/

But I’m pretty sure you need to download a language pack per language you want to transcribe. If that’s possible for multiple languages inside a social media app that’s 127Mb on an iPhone I’d be VERY surprised.

Fortunately, I have a fairly broad Glaswegian accent and, as a consequence, I’m completely immune to all voice recognition technology.

I hope it doesnt recognized my Clingon conversation with a mate 😯

So one lady, who admits she had searched previously for, spoke once and now claims that the app is listening?

That is almost Daily Wail territory.

That was my first thought also. However, later in the article FB appears to confirm it, sort of; sounds more like a Shazam / Soundhound sort of thing than decoding conversations.

Facebook says this about its use of the microphone: “We use your microphone to identify the things you’re listening to or watching, based on the music and TV matches we’re able to identify.”

At least someone is listening to me.

music and TV matches

So yes, more like Shazam, they recognise certain sounds. But they’re not listening to you tell a mate about this MTB forum you use and then suggesting an Audi and Santa Cruz in ads

This thread needs moar anecdotals. Off you all go to chat random nonsense near your Facebook app and report back on dodgy ads served.

But I’m pretty sure you need to download a language pack per language you want to transcribe. If that’s possible for multiple languages inside a social media app that’s 127Mb on an iPhone I’d be VERY surprised.

The pack is part of the OS, not the app itself – at least on Android. I imagine iOS would be the same. It could quite easily already be on your phone, included as part of an iOS update.

Targeted ads will hunt you down.

Perchypanther for Christmas Perchypanther for Christmas Perchypanther for Christmas
And duct tape
And cake

Restraining Order Restraining Order Restraining Order Restraining Order Restraining Order Restraining Order Restraining Order Restraining Order Restraining Order Restraining Order Restraining Order Restraining Order…..OOOOOOh Cake!

I’m pretty dubious, but completely agree with El Reg’s observations that:

Facebook has repeatedly given itself access to people’s personal data and then begged forgiveness afterwards.
…
Its explanations also follow a familiar trend of Facebook responses: vague policies, followed by clear denials, followed by a new set of policies.

So on that basis I’ve turned off access to the mic just to be sure as I’ve never used the music/tv/film recognition stuff anyway.

@atlaz why would it need multiple languages, most of us only speak one and facebook can easiky detect that. Also they do not need to translate/understand every word or meaning, just certain keywords which is what they do for other advertising when scanning your emails, posts etc

Do I believe they are doing this ? Probably not but its possible. Why have facebook not made a flat our denial ? Why was facebook prepared to pay so much for Skype and did pay a high price for WhatsAp then launch voice messaging there and via facebook calls ?

Facebook doesn’t even show as having access to the mic or ever requesting it on my iPhone so can’t see how Apple would let that happen.

This article suggests it is only on when you press the mood button and not all the time.

How to See & Control What Apps Have Microphone Access on iPhone & iPad

Facebook doesn’t even show as having access to the mic or ever requesting it on my iPhone

You sure somouk? It does on mine.

Look under Settings > Facebook > Settings > Microphone

Newer versions of Android allow you to dictate what permissions each app can have. Although my mic was denied access by default.

BBC on smart phone spying

You sure somouk? It does on mine.

Look under Settings > Facebook > Settings > Microphone

Positive, I’ve looked under there and Settings > Privacy > Microphone and it’s not in either.

App is up to date as well.

They must have decided ahead of time I’m not worth listening too.

Facebook doesn’t even show as having access to the mic or ever requesting it on my iPhone so can’t see how Apple would let that happen

What os version are you running?

Mine has it in: Settings > Facebook > Settings > Microphone.

Edt: You’ve tried everything, I’ve got nothing more…

Why was facebook prepared to pay so much for Skype

Unless I’ve missed something, Microsoft bought Skype.

Unless I’ve missed something, Microsoft bought Skype.

Microsoft own a few % of FB. I’m sure there’s some sharing…

What os version are you running?

9.3.2, all up to date on a 6S

I am now randomly saying the word “Giraffe” in the office. I have never typed this word into my phone, neither can I recall ever viewing a picture of a giraffe on my phone at any point.

Will be expecting many giraffe related adverts later. 😉

9.3.2, all up to date on a 6S

That’s odd – so what options do you see under Settings->Facebook->Settings then? Do you still see other stuff like Location, Photos, Camera etc and just no Microphone?

Mine looks like this:

Same here, up to date 6s no microphone option in Facebook settings, screenshot vvv

If Facebook have access to your mic, what do GCHQ/NSA have on you?

And why was a key player in the Paedophile Information Exchange who was in contact with Jimmy Savile and a number of politicians head of the GCHQ Masonic lodge?

Perhaps Siri has an answer?

No mic option on my 5S either.

From another article in the Independent it was suggested that was currently only in place in the US.
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/facebook-using-people-s-phones-to-listen-in-on-what-they-re-saying-claims-professor-a7057526.html