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dlnovell | 9 years ago

Recently my girlfriend discovered the depth of the program FB started to listen to the microphone, even if the app isn't on. She never installed the FB app on her new phone. Multiple times in the last month, some VERY specific topic of conversation IRL has shown up as an ad in her FB stream. Most recently, a coworker told her about a "Custom Martin" guitar he had just bought. Later that day there was an ad for a custom Martin guitar. She's never searched for that, liked anything related, there's absolutely no other reasonable explanation, and facebook has made it clear they were going to start listening. They were serious. We later discovered that new Samsung phones have FB installed as a "system app" that can't be uninstalled, and that app has permission to turn on the microphone whenever, without permission. Her phone listens to everything she says all day. Anyone with the FB app (whether they choose to install it or not in the case of Samsungs) is being listened to at all times. To me, this is worse than every single thing on RMS's list. It's kinda terrifying.

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ams6110|9 years ago

There's a less nefarious explanation (not that I wouldn't put it past Facebook to eavesdrop on the microphone). Her coworker searched or posted about his new "Custom Martin" and this triggered Facebook to show the ads to people he knows.

STRML|9 years ago

I don't really believe they're doing this, or at least I haven't seen any evidence that they are. I suppose it is possible, just like some apps (Alexa, Siri, Google, Cortana) listen for keywords to start input.

FWIW, the DTEK app on the Blackberry Priv tracks permissions usages. My FB app has never accessed the microphone, but it does track my location every 7 minutes. Still creepy.

dlnovell|9 years ago

Oh, and also - this morning FB suggested I may know the Lyft driver from last night. I wasn't even the one who ordered the Lyft, I just rode in it. I don't have the FB app installed on my phone. WTF?

sghi|9 years ago

For that, I was under the assumption that the 'People you may know' on facebook was also who had been looking at you on Facebook, so the driver might have been looking you up.

tvararu|9 years ago

I agree with the adjacent comment that your story smells of confirmation bias.

I suggest conducting an experiment: speak to your girlfriend (away from your phones) and establish a list of highly specific subjects/products. Then, bring these subjects up in conversation when near the phone(s). If what you're saying is true, they should start popping up in the Facebook ads.

madeofpalk|9 years ago

I don't think such a seriously scary thing like this would remain a secret for long. Not only would I think that someone inside of Facebook would leak it (just like the Trending News debacle that Gawker covered), but I strongly believe that security researchers or other people fiddling around with things on their phone or the Facebook app would uncover it.

Combine that with permission models on most devices that alert the user when the microphone is turned on, I cannot see Facebook doing this secretly.

Also, just think about all the things that your girlfriend said around her phone that hasn't turned up in Facebook ads. I'm willing to chalk this up to a weird coincidence or other reasons mentioned here.

eeeeeeeeeeeee|9 years ago

Does anyone have any better evidence this is happening, or if it's something specific to Samsung phones at least? Seems like this would be easy to confirm with packet captures. I know the technical capability is there, but this would be news to me that they are listening all of the time AND acting on that information (different from listening all the time and waiting for a keyword to engage processing -- "hey siri" etc)

guard-of-terra|9 years ago

If it's indeed so - where I live is this stupid law that makes eavesdropping devices illegal.

Maybe they should sue Samsung & FB tandem for listening to conversations, write them a fine the size of small country budget. Make it useful even if just once.