Facebook denied it, and co-host Alex Goldman was convinced.
He presented alternate explanations for their experience.
He couldnt change a single persons mind.
The spying rumor doesnt seem crazy.
After all, Amazon and Google explicitly sell devices that listen to you 24/7.
And Facebooks app sometimesdoeslisten to you.
So why wouldnt they secretly record your conversations to serve targeted ads?
The answer, while complicated, boils down to because its not worth it.
As well explain, you should be scared of what Facebook knows about you.
Just not because its recording your conversations.
News mediaran hard with the story.
This spring,the Outline surfaced it again.
And Reply Alls episode fueledanotherroundofcoverage.
This theory feels true because it taps into the dominant narrative of our age: Computers are taking over.
In this case, were almost right.
Were just making a big mistake in how we think about computers.
More on that later.
Facebook says this feature is never used for advertising.
To pull this off, Facebook would need to automatically process your speech.
To do this, theyd have to use computerized voice recognition.
Facebook does have a history of disrespecting users privacy.
And Facebook is cagey about how much information it collects from people.
They denied it after users worried about the status-update feature.
Rob Goldman, Facebooks VP of product for ads and pages,personally denied it on Twitter.
Facebook is cagey, but they dont tend to openly lie about huge data-collection schemes.
Ex-employees in techblow the whistleall the time.
And this one would bealready isa huge story.
Of course, you cant prove a negativeyou can just push down its probability.
Technologically, as Gizmodo has pointed out,Facebooks voice recognition probably isnt good enoughto effectively target ads.
Open-ended voice recognition is hard.
(Just think of how much Siri messes up requests.)
If Facebook had cracked it, wed probably see them using the technology elsewhere, too.
Theyd have to sneak this gigantic exploit past both companies App Store teams.
Its been done before.
Uber, for example, was caughtspying on users through its app.
But Uber has always played more fast and loose than Facebook.
Whats complicated to us is simple to them, and vice versa.
Facebooks own developers often dont know how their algorithm makes certain choices.
Most people barely grasp the implications of this.
They dont understand how this is scarier than if Facebook simply listened to us.
Open upyour Facebook ad preferences.
Go to Your information and tap the Your categories tab.
And of course this is barely anything.
Youve very likely given Facebook location access, letting it track you at all times.
(Sometimes it screws those up, which is why you get ads for things you just bought.)
It knows where you take your pictures (for Facebook or for Instagram), and whos in them.
If you use Messenger or WhatsApp, it knows who you talk to all day.
It knows your friends and family, and it can connect all their data with all of yours.
So it shows you a perfume ad right after your aunt mentions wanting perfumeor before.
Or if your brother flirts with white supremacy for a season, it gives you disturbing white-pride ads.
The sad news is, youre predictable.
The company even tracks internet users who dont use Facebook, and sells that data to outside advertisers.
It buys more user info from data brokers, including ones that sell credit reports.
Again, Facebook doesnt deny all this data collection and analysis.
It just really doesnt want to talk about it.
Maybe thats just because the company doesnt want to hand over its trade secrets to competitors like Google.
How to Limit Facebooks Access
Reply All compiled some steps Facebooks users can taketo minimize its access.
Here are the best, and easiest:
Go toyour Facebook ad preferences page.
Toggle everything to off or no to limit how Facebook customizes ads.
(If you go through the entire Your interests section, this might take several minutes.)
Install an ad blocker.
On your machine, tryAdblock Plus or uBlock.
On your phone, try1Blocker or Purifyon iOS andAdblock Browseron Android.
If youre paranoid about Facebooks app hijacking your microphone and camera in iOS or Android,revoke access.
Dont assume that you have to sacrifice your privacy so you can enjoy the advantages of technology.
In the long run, tech is only sustainable if it can deliver both.
