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In the midst of persistent rumors that Facebook is spying you through the microphone of your phone – rumors that the company has denied for at least 2016 – reports have emerged this week that the company has applied for a patent on a technology who listens to detect what you watch on TV.
Essentially, your phone or other device would detect, via bluetooth or other signals, that it is near your TV turned on and that it would record short snippets of sound. TV shows and commercials can include high-pitched signals that accurately identify what you're watching, and this data can be relayed to a central server to "update individuals' user profiles" in your home to better target users with a personalized content. , according to the patent application filed late 2016.
It is not of the only technology of capturing and identifying the audio signals of the company. In another patent application filed in 2015, Facebook describes a system capable of capturing data on what a user looks at by using "acoustic footprints" to analyze ambient audio or even by analyzing electrical signals from an HDMI cable or TV. None of the patents mention listening to voice or user conversations.
When he was contacted by Fast Company Facebook said that he would never use patent pending technology. According to a statement sent via email by Allen Lo, Vice President, Deputy General Counsel and Head of Intellectual Property at Facebook:
It is common practice to file patents to prevent aggression from others companies. For this reason, patents tend to focus on a future technology that is often speculative and could be marketed by other companies. The technology of this patent has not been included in any of our products and will never be included. As we have already said, we often request patents for technologies that we never implement, and patent applications should not be considered as an indication of future product plans.
Zuckerberg replied, "No.
Of course, the company deliberately stores the audio and video files uploaded and shared by its users, and its terms of service give it enough leeway to analyze and process that data. But the company does not plan to use ambient sounds to create commercials or user streams.
"Facebook has never used your phone's microphone to inform commercials or change what you see in News Feed 'do in the future," said Facebook vice president Rob Goldman announces in a shared release with Fast Company .
Meanwhile, rumors suggest that Facebook will soon launch a similar smartphone speaker product similar to Amazon Echo and Google Home, which would likely revive theories of the company. espionage, even unintentionally Amazon devices have been known to misinterpret conversations as controls for recording and transmitting audio, and devices typically operate by constantly listening to clues in conversations, even when they are not. they do not keep this audio incident or send it to the cloud.It is already happening
Capturing audio to understand what you look may seem weird, but it is being done. A company called Alphonso does exactly that, using modules in applications such as games to listen to TV audio and identify shows, the New York Times reported the year last. The company says that it does not pick up human voices, and users with code applications can opt out at any time.
In 2016, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) wrote to the developers to warn them that they were using another TV -observing application module by the Silverpush data company and did not use it. has not properly informed the users, they could be in violation of the law. At the time, Silverpush said that its technology was not used in the United States, according to the FTC, but promised that it would kill the software anyway because of a problem. "Commercial decision".
A year later, researchers found more than 200 Android apps still using Silverpush's ineffective "beacon" sound technology to spy on what TV commercials were watching. Applications, including some used overseas and related to large companies like McDonald's and Krispy Kreme, have been collectively downloaded millions of times into the official Google Play market, the researchers wrote in. a May 2017 article.
at home with information on what you are watching, provided you give your consent in the often dense menus that you see when you get in and plug it in. TVs usually do not need to listen to external audio to find out what you are watching since they already have this data. By collecting your IP address, broadcasters and advertisers can also use this information to match your viewing habits with other known information about your online behavior.
For example, 4C, an analytic company and marketing partner of Facebook and Twitter, uses different techniques to help determine the offline activity of users and associate digital ads with live TV moments and commercials . Before its collapse, Cambridge Analytica, the dishonorable electoral firm, touted similar techniques.
Even if marketers do not literally listen, hackers and stalkers are known for grabbing webcams and microphones to spy on innocent people. (Even Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg would cover the camera and microphone on his laptop.) Last year, a leak of cyber-weapons from the CIA revealed a tool to capture the audio recorded by the Smart TV from Samsung. And some companies offer spyware apps that you can install on smartphones (often for employers and parents) to monitor their use, including opening the microphone to spy on you
User: Hackers could use a song To "watch" you through your smart speaker
To prevent clandestine audio monitoring by apps, users can use the privacy settings on their smartphone to disable it. access from an application to the microphone. This, however, can also prevent a number of useful features, such as video recording with sound.
The bottom line is that advertisers have found that they like the wealth of data that they can get on your online habits, and there is probably a continual push to find ways to Get similar data on what you are watching, listening to and even discussing in the physical world. Even if Facebook does not listen, that does not mean that technically it can not or that it will not do so in the future.
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