Facebook insists it is not listening to your conversations

Facebook is known for a lot of things, but as a respecter of privacy, it’s not. A recent report by a professor at the University at South Florida suggested that Facebook was using information captured by your phone’s microphone to send you customised ads. Given Facebook’s reputation, nobody was surprised, except Facebook that is. Kelly Burns, a professor of mass communication at the University of South Florida put forth this idea and claimed to have received ads relevant to her conversations near her phone. Gizmodo reports that a Redditor had wondered the same thing in 2015. He claimed to have been talking about cockroaches when he suddenly started seeing ads for pest control. Facebook was indignant in its denial, saying, “We only access your microphone if you have given our app permission and if you are actively using a specific feature that requires audio.” But this is Facebook we’re talking about and even if what they’re saying is true, you know that the seed has been planted. Microphones are everywhere, some of us even wear them on our wrists. Someone at Facebook’s HQ is probably hatching out a plan right now. Your words will be used against you (for you, in Facebook’s eyes) and Facebook will try to convince you that they’re doing it for your benefit.