Facebook: We Don’t Listen In To Your Conversations

Megalith

Megalith

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Facebook has released an official statement to assure users that the company does not use your phone’s microphone to target you with ads. Of course, people who have actually witnessed ads based on recent discussions they’ve had remain totally unconvinced.

…Facebook rushed to assure users that it is not, in fact, secretly listening to everything they say through their phone’s microphone. The pledge comes in response to recent reports that claimed pretty much the opposite—that Facebook could be using background conversations to present users with relevant ads. The theory came from Kelli Burns, a professor of mass communication at the University of South Florida, whom the Independent reported had tested the feature by talking about topics within earshot of her phone, and was then shown related ads on Facebook.
 
It's happened to my parents on several occasions. Dad works on cars for a living, and has had conversations with his wife about certain parts he wants for his own vehicles, things that he has not looked up yet, just thought of them in conversation, and logged into Facebook to find ads for the very same parts.
 
ryno9100 said:
It's happened to my parents on several occasions. Dad works on cars for a living, and has had conversations with his wife about certain parts he wants for his own vehicles, things that he has not looked up yet, just thought of them in conversation, and logged into Facebook to find ads for the very same parts.
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Serious question: why did the conversations about those parts arise in the first place? Was he thinking about them because he'd already seen ads for them but forgot about them? That aside, Facebook already knows he works on cars for a living, probably already knows what vehicles he already owns, and probably has data on what sorts of things he does to those vehicles and when he does those things, because he buys stuff to do those things.

Don't underestimate big data, which has been known to accurately start sending new mother ads to women who didn't know they were pregnant, based on subtle changes in the groceries they were buying.
 
Facebook is digging deep into whatever your doing. It might be digging into Gmail as well as tab peering. It's almost too invasive.
 
evilsofa said:
Serious question: why did the conversations about those parts arise in the first place? Was he thinking about them because he'd already seen ads for them but forgot about them? That aside, Facebook already knows he works on cars for a living, probably already knows what vehicles he already owns, and probably has data on what sorts of things he does to those vehicles and when he does those things, because he buys stuff to do those things.

Don't underestimate big data, which has been known to accurately start sending new mother ads to women who didn't know they were pregnant, based on subtle changes in the groceries they were buying.
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He had been told by a customer that a particular truck was for sale. He hadn't worked on this truck, researched it, nor ever intended to buy one. It casually came up in conversation between him and my mom, including him talking about what parts would be needed to fix the truck. 20 minutes later, he was in the house looking at Facebook, and an ad popped up for the exact part he had been talking to Mom about. I'm telling the story second hand, but Dad's not one to exaggerate or lie in these cases.
 
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NO it happens I brought up an old hip hop group I said one guy looked like one of them . Never looked em up don't like the group. I don't have facebook but the next time my g/f logged in it had and ad for that groups tour. That shit happens period.
 
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BB Gun said:
yeah, why use the app when the browser works fine?
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Never understood this either. Waiting for the day they gimp/restrict use of the browser on mobile phones.

And the real reason why the FB app destroys your battery becomes more apparent..
 
jackngo said:
Facebook says the feature will be used for harmless things, like identifying the song or TV show playing in the background, but it actually has the ability to listen to everything — including your private conservations — and store it indefinitely.
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lair lair pants on fire
 
I dont have fb and it was on her phone. FB wasn't even pulled up at the time
 
Eh, ill never know if they target ads to me thanks to ublock
 
N4CR said:
Never understood this either. Waiting for the day they gimp/restrict use of the browser on mobile phones.

And the real reason why the FB app destroys your battery becomes more apparent..
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They just finally made it so you can't read messages through the browser. I got a message a few days ago and tried to open it in the browser like I normally do but when I clicked on the messages icon it would prompt me to install the Messenger app. :(
 
They can't listen in to your cell phone conversations if Facebook isn't installed on your phone.
 
DarkStar02 said:
They just finally made it so you can't read messages through the browser. I got a message a few days ago and tried to open it in the browser like I normally do but when I clicked on the messages icon it would prompt me to install the Messenger app. :(
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Aw lmfao speak of the devil. I'll give it a shot later, bet if you force desktop browser mode it'll work fine. I always do that on most sites [H] included, mobile just seems to always be 'absolutely gimped for the purpose of advertisement'.
 
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