These days, Facebook seems to know more about you than you do. From eerily accurate "people you may know" suggestions to the creepily perfect ads populating your News Feed, the company undeniably has a Big Brother-like finger on the pulse of its 2 billion monthly active users.
But how does it do this? Could it be, perhaps, that when the boy king behind the half-trillion dollar company isn't defending himself against charges of subverting democracy, he's directing his algorithmic minions to listen in on your every conversation so as to better target you with shoe adverts?
Absolutely yes — at least, so goes a long-running theory repeatedly denied by Facebook. But maybe, just maybe, Facebook isn't being totally honest with us? This seems to be the general consensus of scores of users who believe, despite any and all official proclamations to the contrary, that Facebook eavesdrops on their daily banter.
SEE ALSO:When it comes to online security, being paranoid is no longer enoughAnd those users are doing more than just sharing paranoid theories: they're taking steps to fight back.
First of all, the thought that Facebook listens to its users through phone and computer microphones isn't that far fetched. In fact, the company has admitted it doesdo this — albeit in a limited fashion and only "if you have given our app permission and if you are actively using a specific feature that requires audio."
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But maybe it's not so limited, after all. Putting aside the idea that the company is straight-up lying, it is possible that Facebook's left hand isn't quite sure what the right is doing. Mark Zuckerberg, after all, famously shot down as "crazy" the idea that fake news on his platform influenced the 2016 election. So, you know, perhaps not everyone at the Menlo Park HQ really knows everything that's happening at the company.
To the conspiracy-inclined, it sure looks that way.
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A video that went viral on Reddit purports to show the alleged spying in action, with a user — who insists he doesn't own a cat and never searches for "cat food" — intentionally talking about cat food in front of his phone for a day. Sure enough, he claims, Facebook served him an ad for some feline snacks.
Again, and it bears repeating, Facebook has tried (and clearly failed) to flat out shut this idea down.
"Facebook does not use your phone’s microphone to inform ads or to change what you see in News Feed," the company wrote in a June 2, 2016, blog post. "Some recent articles have suggested that we must be listening to people’s conversations in order to show them relevant ads. This is not true. We show ads based on people’s interests and other profile information – not what you’re talking out loud about."
People aren't buying it.
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Not quite willing to take Zuckerberg & Co. at their word, Facebook users are moving to keep what they perceive as corporate ears out of their business. The first step is a simple one: Revoke Facebook's mic permissions.
If you have the app on an iPhone, simply head to Settings > Privacy > Microphone and revoke Facebook's access to your mic. On Android, find your way to Settings > Apps > Facebook > Permissions > and toggle off the microphone setting.
Or, of course, you could just remove the app from your smartphone altogether — a step that many have taken.
"Deleted FB, Twitter, Instagram, and turned off all mic permissions i could and its still happening," wrote one Redditor. "I am 100% sure its not coincidence, ive done a lot of experiments. I also tried a mic blocking app, didn't work."
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What about your computer? Some people, including one Mark Zuckerberg, cover up their laptop's camera, but disabling the internal microphone isn't so easy. Sure, you can put a piece of tape over the input, but that doesn't actually work so well.
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More drastic measures are required. One easy way to do this is take an old pair of headphones that include a mic and cut off the side with the microphone. Like, with scissors. Plug those bad boys in, and then your computer will switch from its internal mic to the nonexistent headphone one. Easy peasy.
Not content to simply stop what they perceive as Facebook spying, others users are suggesting ways to trick the company into revealing what they believe to be a dark secret.
"[Put] your phone in front of the spanish channel for a couple of days and see what happens," suggests one Reddit post.
"I've heard the best test is to leave your phone by a Spanish speaking radio station," reads another. "Later, see if your ads are in Spanish."
Some claim to have done this test accidentally. "I work in a mostly spanish speaking kitchen, but i don't speak (awful) spanish outside of work, nor do i google things in spanish," notes one Redditor. "Yet my Instagram (with mic permissions disabled) started throwing latino-themed ads my way a few months after i started my job."
So what is really going on here? All the public skepticism has to come from somewhere, even if it's just based on Facebook's history of poorly communicating privacy settings to its users.
Still, even if we take Facebook at its word, another — perhaps even scarier — possibility presents itself. Simply put, Facebook doesn't needthe microphone to know what you're talking about. The company has so much data on its users that it's able to (more or less) accurately predict things you may have recently discussed. Of course, the algorithms likely guess incorrectly sometimes too. However, a post like "why did Facebook serve me this random ad" isn't going to get to the front page of Reddit.
Many users have taken what they believe to be the ultimate step in protecting themselves against Facebook's eyes and ears: deleting their account. It's one foolproof way to make sure the company isn't listening to through your smartphone's mic, although it won't stop the company from using your friend's phone to do the same thing.
But hey, you can only fight one battle at a time.
TopicsCybersecurityFacebookPrivacy
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