Proof that Facebook is listening

[prairie_girl]

They're definitely listening. We drove past a store called 5.11. I had never seen or heard of before and I asked out loud "what's that?". Moments later there was an ad on my phone. Way too coincidental for such a niche shop. And I certainly hadn't looked it up or ever searched for the merchandise they sell.

Not a fan.

so you simply said what’s that and your phone knew you were talking about a store and not a bird or a dog or a car? So now AI can tell where your eyes are looking?

 

[TLSnell1981]

so you simply said what’s that and your phone knew you were talking about a store and not a bird or a dog or a car? So now AI can tell where your eyes are looking?

She said it never popped up when she was driving by. It wasn't until she mentioned the name that ads appeared.

 

[prairie_girl]

She said it never popped up when she was driving by. It wasn't until she mentioned the name that ads appeared.

My bad. I didn’t see that reply. Either way, I don’t buy it, and I’m not just speaking about her. I have never never never had an ad come up for something without having searched for it in the recent past.

 

[TLSnell1981]

My bad. I didn’t see that reply. Either way, I don’t buy it, and I’m not just speaking about her. I have never never never had an ad come up for something without having searched for it in the recent past.

It has happened to me. There have been times I’ve wondered but wasn’t quite sure... This past weekend was weird because I have 100% NEVER searched ANYTHING regarding my washer. Let’s just say it creeped me out. I’ve turned Siri and my mics off.

 

[kdonnel]

It is amazing how well Facebook Pixel works.

https://www.facebook.com/business/learn/facebook-ads-pixel

And Google Analytics and all the other tracking services.

There is no need to listen in using the microphone.

 

[PollyannaMom]

Same here but Pinterest is even worse!! Sometime I think that Pinterest can read minds.

Yep, Pinterest is definitely designed to "lead you down the rabbit hole"! - Not only does it show you more stuff related to the stuff you've just looked at, it's probably showing you stuff other people looked at right after they looked at the same stuff you just looked at.

(It really doesn't bother me, though. Because I'm aware of it happening, I usually find it helpful, or at least amusing.)

Yup. That's how we all get to use Facebook and the Disney Boards for free. Targeted ads.

Absolutely - "If you're not paying for the product, you are the product."

I watched The Social Dilemma documentary on Netflix all about social media, Google, etc this weekend. It was incredibly sobering and makes you want to throw your phone into the trash (as I sit here and check out my FB feed )

I just watched that this weekend as well!

Which brings me to this:
Baader-Meinhof phenomenon

Your post jumped out at me because I'd just seen the same documentary (which I thought was excellent, by the way!) My seeing it didn't influence you posting that at all, it simply made me pay attention to your post.

So while I absolutely believe a lot of the data collection and ad-targeting we're discussing is really happening, I'm equally sure that some of what we're seeing is due to this phenomenon. We ignore gobs of ads all the time, but after we've just been talking about a certain thing, we're primed to notice the ones about that thing.

 

[goofyernmost]

Wow... I guess coincidence is no longer a thing. What I have found is if you mention anything on line it will show up. If I say Viagra ads will show up no later than the next day. That is just the way it is. However, it is easy to let paranoia rule your mind. Resist the temptation. I'll let you know when they show up.

 

[TLSnell1981]

Wow... I guess coincidence is no longer a thing. What I have found is if you mention anything on line it will show up. If I say Viagra ads will show up no later than the next day. That is just the way it is. However, it is easy to let paranoia rule your mind. Resist the temptation. I'll let you know when they show up.

“Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you.”

― Joseph Heller, Catch-22

 

[goofyernmost]

“Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you.”
― Joseph Heller, Catch-22

I wouldn't be so paranoid if they all weren't after me either.

 

[3boymthr]

https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-ads-listening-to-you-2019-5
There's a wildly popular conspiracy theory that Facebook listens to your private phone calls, and no matter what the tech giant says, people just aren't convinced it's not true
Ben Gilbert
Aug 14, 2019, 4:05 PM

There you were, talking to Gina about a potential trip this fall to Buenos Aires. "Maybe I'll go to Buenos Aires this fall!" you said. "Or maybe Lisbon! Who knows!"

Hours later, idly scrolling through Facebook and — what's that? An ad for vacationing in Lisbon? How could it have known?

Look no further than CBS This Morning anchor Gayle King, who related a similar story to Instagram head Adam Mosseri in an interview in June.

It's perhaps too familiar of a story at this point. A cliché. "Facebook is listening to my conversations!" you tell Gina. "I know it." And she's sympathetic. Maybe she even has her own story about something very similar happening to her.

"Can you help me understand how I can be having a private conversation with someone about something I'm interested in seeing or buying, and an advertisement for that will pop up on my Instagram feed?" King asked. Even after he explained how it could be happening, King wasn't convinced. "I don't believe you!" she said. "I don't know how this happens repeatedly.

The belief that Facebook and Instagram are listening to users through their smartphones, then serving ads based on that spying, is extremely pernicious.

It crosses generations, race, gender, and income brackets. Your conspiracy-minded uncle and members of Congress and your favorite morning news anchor are on the same page for this one. Everyone, it seems, believes that Facebook and Instagram are listening in on them.

And no matter how hard they try to tamp down that belief, it persists.

Back in June 2016, Facebook issued a statement.

"Facebook Does Not Use Your Phone's Microphone for Ads or News Feed Stories," is its headline.

The copy of the post goes into more detail: "Some recent articles have suggested that we must be listening to people's conversations in order to show them relevant ads. This is not true. We show ads based on people's interests and other profile information — not what you're talking out loud about."

It was a direct response to a news story that ran in May 2016 from an NBC outpost in Florida that purported to prove that Facebook was listening to users. "Facebook is not only watching, but also listening to your cell phone. It all starts with enabling your microphone feature in your settings. Once you do, choose your words carefully," the piece says.

The proof in the piece was anecdotal — a professor interviewed by NBC enabled microphone access to her Facebook app, briefly talked aloud about potentially going on a safari, and, "Less than 60 seconds later, the first post on her Facebook feed was a safari story that seemed to pop up out of nowhere."

It's exactly these types of stories that embolden the belief that Facebook is listening to your conversations.

The root of this belief goes back further, to 2014, when Facebook added a feature to its smartphone app for identifying music.

In May 2014, Facebook introduced a new feature that could identify the music around you and use that information for a status update. The feature required users to give Facebook's app access to their phone's microphone, and their phone alerted them to this fact.

The feature would indeed share data with Facebook based on your phone's mic, but it wasn't intended to pick up on conversations as well.

Still, the idea that users were being asked to give the app access to the mic with the explicit purpose of listening for data that Facebook gathered was enough to get people worried. The company was forced to issue an update to its announcement with some clarifications.

"Facebook isn't listening to or storing your conversations," the update says. That was over five years ago, and far from the last time Facebook would have to issue this denial.

When Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified in front of the US Congress in April 2018, he was asked by lawmakers about this exact thing.

Of the many questions that US lawmakers had for Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg during his congressional hearings last year, one line of questioning from both congressional bodies stood out: Was Facebook listening to users, and then serving ads based on that spying?

"Something that I've been hearing a lot from folks who have been coming up to me and talking about a kind of experience they've had where they're having a conversation with friends — not on the phone, just talking. And then they see ads popping up fairly quickly on their Facebook," Senator Gary Peters said during Zuckerberg's Senate hearing last year. "I've heard constituents fear that Facebook is mining audio from their mobile devices for the purposes of ad targeting — which I think speaks to the lack of trust that we're seeing here."

When Peters asked Zuckerberg directly if Facebook was doing that, he directly said, "No." Zuckerberg called it a "conspiracy theory."

The same line of questioning, with a similar anecdote, came from Congressman Larry Bucshon during Zuckerberg's testimony to the House. Zuckerberg denied the allegation once again, and said, "Someone might be talking about something, but then they also go to a website or interact with it on Facebook because they were talking about it, and maybe they'll see the ad because of that."

There's a good reason so many people are paranoid about Facebook: The company has given people plenty of reason to be paranoid.

Over the last several years, it seems like Facebook has hopped from privacy scandal to privacy scandal.

Whether we're talking about the Cambridge Analytica scandal, or the 2016 presidential election, or any of the other myriad stories of Facebook mishandling user data, selling user data, or losing user data, the company has a major trust issue on its hands.

Just this week, another scandal: Facebook is apparently listening to and transcribing some users' audio chats.

As Senator Peters put it during Zuckerberg's hearing in front of the US Senate, "I think it's safe to say very simply that Facebook is losing the trust of an awful lot of Americans." Peters was speaking specifically to the Cambridge Analytica scandal, but the statement could apply to any number of these recurring instances.

The company denies it's listening, up to and including its CEO stating as much to Congress, and the belief is undeterred.

Simply put: The reason so many people believe that Facebook is listening to them is because people don't trust Facebook.

Though Instagram hasn't had as many public dust-ups, it's guilty by proxy — Facebook owns Instagram, which puts the two platforms are similarly shaky footing in the trust department.

There are arguments to be made about the legality of Facebook and Instagram listening to their users, as it would be illegal to collect audio recordings from people. And there are arguments to be made about how useful that information would even be, as it would require an immense amount of processing to be used to serve ads.
But the strongest argument for why Facebook and Instagram almost certainly aren't listening to you and serving ads based on that is far more damning: Because they already have way, way more detailed information about you.
People voluntarily offer a massive array of data every time they use these applications, from how they're feeling to where they are to what they buy and who they know. Both are eerily good at serving ads because they have an absurdly large trove of information about you and your habits based on how you use them. Perhaps more importantly, Facebook has hooks all over the web, so your activity outside of social media often turns into usable data as well.
The social media giant doesn't need to listen in on your conversations to serve you ads — it already has all the info it needs.

Don't believe us? Here's how to disable Facebook from using your phone's mic.

If you have an iPhone or iPad, disabling microphone access to Facebook is a snap:

-Open Settings.

-Then tap Privacy.

-Then Microphone.

-Select Facebook, and disable access. Easy!

A similar set of instructions works for Android:

-Open Settings.

-Select "Apps & notifications."

-Select "Advanced" at the bottom.

-Select "App permissions."

-Select "Microphone," and disable Facebook. Maybe disable Instagram and WhatsApp too while you're there, as both are owned by Facebook.

It’s not just the microphone. Facebook accesses Bluetooth as well. It can be shut off using basically the same procedure. So if you connect your phone to the car, etc. Facebook has access.

 

[Poohlove]

Yep, Pinterest is definitely designed to "lead you down the rabbit hole"! - Not only does it show you more stuff related to the stuff you've just looked at, it's probably showing you stuff other people looked at right after they looked at the same stuff you just looked at.

(It really doesn't bother me, though. Because I'm aware of it happening, I usually find it helpful, or at least amusing.)

I hadn’t even thought of that!! My kids and I were talking about it and it makes sense for Pinterest since the very nature of it is that people are searching for things that interest them. I don’t let it bother me either, some of the stuff that pops up gives me a good laugh and who doesn’t need that from time to time !!

 

[2goofycampers]

When this thread came out I read it to my DH. At night we keep our phones on our bedside table. Last night he got into bed and I was getting ready for bed he kept repeating "electric blanket". I cracked up!

 

[brockash]

Not facebook but today my husband I went shopping for a wheeled laptop carrier and the next time I opened google, I had as for them.

Yes...I don't think it's facebook related. The other day I watched a show...on my tv...that I had never watched before, wasn't new etc. and the next time I opened my internet on my phone...there it was...so odd.

 

[mrodgers]

Yes...I don't think it's facebook related. The other day I watched a show...on my tv...that I had never watched before, wasn't new etc. and the next time I opened my internet on my phone...there it was...so odd.

Unless you have an old TV, most are connected to the internet and your phone with the FB app is connected to the internet. It's not so odd. Facebook and Google is looking at and listening to everything. Your TV, your phone, Chrome browser on your laptop/PC, all interconnected and data sniffing everything.

 

[AndreaDM]

Not even just listening! I kept seeing a FB ad for something I've never talked about, searched for, mentioned, nothing. Well, come Valentine's Day, guess what I got? LOL, my SO had ordered it from Amazon and since we use the same internet, it showed up on my feed. He doesn't even use FB! So, forget about buying a surprise for anyone living in your household!

 

[goofyernmost]

Wow... I guess coincidence is no longer a thing. What I have found is if you mention anything on line it will show up. If I say Viagra ads will show up no later than the next day. That is just the way it is. However, it is easy to let paranoia rule your mind. Resist the temptation. I'll let you know when they show up.

Addendum: It wasn't on this particular board, but the day after I posted that, a Viagra ad showed up in another location. Coincidence, maybe, but it has happened more then once to me over the years. Just remember the alternative fact that you should be dressed when in the kitchen because your Microwave is watching you.

 

[DVCjj]

I've commented previously on P.2 but I had a very creepyexperience Tuesday when at Animal Kingdom. I tried to get into a favorite of ours...,,Yak and Yeti. Flashed my Landry card but this time I was told too many had Landry cards and it would be an hour wait for the (usual) walk in. We left and decided to go to Dis Springs.

On the way out of AK, we passed Rainforest Cafe and DH mentioned how we totally forgot about (Landry) Rainforest Cafe. But after no Yak and Yeti, we simlpy ate a quick hotdog at AK and weren't hungry anymore.

Left the park. JUST NOW I got an email from Landry saying "Thank you for your visit to Rainforest Disney Animal Kingdom and here's your $36 points".
WHAT? We never ate there. My husband simply mentioned it when we were leaving. I am 100% shocked.

My iPhone was in my purse. My iWatch was on my wrist. Am I losing my mind or did someone hear his conversation from my devices? (He had no technology on him)

 

[DL1WDW2]

Wonder why Disney is introducing Mickey in the hotel rooms .
Its just a toy, right?

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

Even as of yesterday I am still amazed at how sometimes Google "reads my mind". I am so creeped out when I will start typing something like "Is the..." and it pre-fills exactly what I was going to say.

I don't think its Facebook that does it, because I have barely messed with it in so long, and rarely logged in for like the last couple years and that kind of thing was still happening. On a side note, I did finally log in the other day and try to clean it up and update it. I ended up getting my account locked
I managed to get it recovered, but it was quite the hassle. I am starting to remember why I grew tired of it.

 

[mrodgers]

Well, since I've posted back in February, I had a new one this summer. I may have stated this in other threads, but this one was bumped so here it is...

I forgot my phone in the kitchen and went to work, 10 miles away. No way for my phone to listen to me, it's in the kitchen.

I was chatting with some coworkers and John is showing me on his phone photos the CamAm motorcycle his girlfriend just bought. We looked at pictures that he took, he put his phone away, and we talked about it.

Now I do ride and am in several FB groups. I ride with John as well as we are pretty connected through FB from our week long bicycle touring we've done together. However, he did not have FB open on his phone and my phone is 10 miles away. I sometimes get ads for Kawasaki as that's what I have and the groups I'm in but I never get any other motorcycle ads, let alone a CanAm which is not really a motorcycle.

When I got home and opened FB later that evening, ads for CanAm motorcycles. FB connected my voice with John and our friendship on FB and sent me ads we talked about from 10 miles away.