1.

INDYTECH

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 theres an easy way of turning it off
ANDREW GRIFFIN
@_andrew_griffin
Tuesday 31 May 2016 12:08 BST

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Facebook could be listening in on peoples conversations all of the time, an

expert has claimed.
The app might be using peoples phones to gather data on what they are talking
about, it has been claimed.
Facebook says that its app does listen to whats happening around it, but only as
a way of seeing what people are listening to or watching and suggesting that they
post about it.
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 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.
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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 peoples 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 isnt always listening and that it never stores the raw
audio when it is listening.
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Facebook says explicitly on its help pages that it doesnt 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 whatevers going on.

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If people want to use the feature that way, then they can start writing a post in the
normal way. If its 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 Facebooks help page. If this happens, tap, drag and release your
screen to try a new match.
Turning off the microphone in a phones settings is relatively easy, and since it
can be done at the level of the operating system, doing so will mean that
Facebook cant turn it on even if it wanted to. Its done on an iPhone by heading
to the apps 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.