FACEBOOK IS
USING SMARTPHONES TO LISTEN TO WHAT PEOPLE SAY, PROFESSOR SUGGESTS.
The company
says that it does use peoples' microphones, but only to help them out – and
there’s an easy way of turning it off.
Facebook
could be listening in on people’s conversations all of the time, an expert has
claimed.
The app
might be using people’s phones to gather data on what they are talking about,
it has been claimed.
Facebook
says that its app does listen to what’s happening around it, but only as a way
of seeing what people are listening to or watching and suggesting that they
post about it.
All the
personal information you give away each time you 'like' a Facebook page
The feature
has been available for a couple of years, but recent warnings from Kelli Burns,
mass communication professor at the University of South Florida, have drawn
attention to it.
Professor
Burns has said that the tool appears to be using the audio it gathers not
simply to help out users, but might be doing so to listen in to discussions and
serve them with relevant advertising. She says that to test the feature, she
discussed certain topics around the phone and then found that the site appeared
to show relevant ads.
Though
Professor Burns said she was not convinced that Facebook is listening in on
conversations – it may have been that she was searching for the same things
that she chose to discuss around the phone – but she said that it wouldn't be a
surprising move from the site.
The claim
chimes with anecdotal reports online that the site appears to show ads for
things that people have mentioned in passing.
Facebook said
that it does listen to audio and collect information from users – but that the
two aren't combined, and that sounds heard around people aren't used to decide
what appears in the app.
“Facebook
does not use microphone audio to inform advertising or News Feed stories in any
way," a spokesperson told The Independent. "Businesses are able to
serve relevant ads based on people’s interests and other demographic
information, but not through audio collection.”
At the
moment, the feature is only available in the US.
When it was
first introduced, in 2014, Facebook responded to controversy by arguing that
the phone isn’t “always listening” and that it never stores the “raw audio”
when it is listening.
The next
stage for Facebook?
Facebook
says explicitly on its help pages that it doesn’t record conversations, but
that it does use the audio to identify what is happening around the phone. The
site promotes the feature as an easy way of identifying what you are listening
to or watching, to make it easier and quicker to post about whatever’s going
on.
Facebook
profile photos reveal people’s personalities
If people
want to use the feature that way, then they can start writing a post in the
normal way. If it’s turned on, then it will start identifying what is being
listened to or watching – at which point a little face with some soundwaves
next to it will appear.
If it
identifies the sound successfully, then it will show a little “1” next to the
face instead – users can then click that, select the thing they are watching or
listening to, and then write the rest of the update.
“If your
phone's microphone has trouble matching what you're listening to or watching,
the room you're in may be loud or a commercial may be on,” according to
Facebook’s help page. “If this happens, tap, drag and release your screen to
try a new match.”
Turning off
the microphone in a phone’s settings is relatively easy, and since it can be
done at the level of the operating system, doing so will mean that Facebook
can’t turn it on even if it wanted to. It’s done on an iPhone by heading to the
app’s settings, clicking through to privacy and switching the slider for
microphone; on Android phones, head to settings and then privacy, and change
the permissions that the Facebook app is given.
The claims
come after Belgian police warned citizens not to use Facebook's Reactions tool
if they valued their privacy.
Source:
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
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