Facebook patents a system so that inaudible signals from an ad activate your mobile's microphone

Facebook wants to hear what's going on around you . The social network has always denied the recurring accusations that you use your cell phone's microphone to spy on your microphone, but a new patent granted to you proves that you're working on software that allows you to do something very similar .

patent is called "view analysis of the broadcast content based on the ambient audio recording" (view analysis of the transmission content based on the recording of the ambient sound), and describes a system able to record the ambient sound of your mobile . I would do it when different content such as TV ads would emit certain inaudible sounds to the human being, but that cell phones could detect.

As the patent describes, we would quietly watch television, and that would emit that kind of high-pitched or imperceptible sound for us. However the mobile itself would detect and as if the "Ok, Google" Google Assisntat was processed, the software or module that we had in the mobile would begin to work.

The first thing this would do program will use the mobile microphone to record everything going on around him, including the content of the broadcast that performed it. Then, the application would send this record to Facebook's servers, including the time at which it was saved and a unique identifier for each device.

Behind all this would be an effort to measure which advertisements are the most effective ] Although Facebook does not specify much what it does data, this seems to imply that its main purpose is to recognize and identify the advertisements we see, and know if we saw it until the end or if we changed channels quickly. 19659006] We will have to see if Facebook dares with it

At no time does Facebook say in the patent that the intention of this technology is to spy on or obtain personal data from users, but rather know what advertisements we like best and can offer us only those we are interested in. In any case, with all the problems that they have had in recent months will have to see if they dare to wear this patented technology.

Although they were granted this month, the patent was requested in 2016, long before the Cambridge Analytica scandal brought Zuckerberg to appear before the US Senate or Parliament. European Union, and since then he asks for forgiveness and makes sure that everything is improved

. is falling and the growing interest in privacy seems difficult for Facebook to take the risk of implementing this more controversial system even if they tell the truth and are not some something to spy on. Therefore, it would not be so much that they had to implement immediately (and if they do, of course, they will try not to know), but rather something that they could pick up once the waters have calmed down.