Facebook app listens to user discussions via phone's microphone

Facebook has been subjected to myriad controversies related to user-monitoring issues over the past few years. Last month, it faced huge disparagement for purportedly suppressing news content manually on its auto-driven ‘Trending News’ section.

However, that’s not the chief hullabaloo that the social media giant has stumbled upon in recent times. In the past, the multi-billion dollar valued company has been criticised for delving deep into the life of its users, monitoring and collecting data about them to enhance ‘user experience’ and further perk up its business.

While it does not influence a user’s lives in a straight line, it does track and store personal data retrieved from the networking website itself, and its wings—WhatsApp and Instagram. Although the company has strongly denied the allegations made against it, a large number of tech buffs and experts testifying about Facebook’s practice cannot be ignored.

Adding to the jar of contentious privacy issues, a new report by the Independent has pointed out that the company is using users’ smartphones ‘to listen to what they say’. According to the report, an expert has explained that the networking site’s app’ might be using people’s phones to gather data on what they are talking about.

Kelli Burns, a mass communication professor at the University of South Florida, said that the feature, which has been present for over two years, appears to be utilisng the audio it gathers from a smartphone’s microphone to push forth user-centric ads.

She tested the feature by discussing certain topics in the vicinity of her phone, and to her surprise, the site showed ads relevant to the matters discussed. While professor Burns wasn’t completely sure if the ads were based on the discussions or search results, she hinted that it would not be unexpected move on the company’s part.

The report also tinted the fact that Facebook had itself confirmed about listening to audio and collecting information about users; however, it also said that listening to audio and info collection are two different activities—sounds heard are never used to decide what appears in the user’s timeline.

Currently, this feature is only available in the US. When it was released in 2014, Facebook strongly contended that its app does not always listening to discussions.

On its help page, the networking site clarified that it does not record direct conversations, but uses sound to paint a picture of what is happening in the surroundings. Using the feature, the site easily identifies what you are listening or watching, to easily post updates about what is going on.

While this feature can be helpful in posting a status quickly or getting preferential content on your timeline, the feature’s actual motive raises a lot of questions regarding personal privacy. You can, however, switch off your phone’s microphone to stop this feature. As mentioned earlier, this is not the first time that Facebook has received flak for monitoring activities.

Another recent controversy was regarding the newly launched reactions menu, which was criticised for collecting information on users’ likeliness towards any particular content, helping display user-engaging content only.