Yahoo News Apps on your phone really do listen to you all the time, security expert claims
Lots of people claim they’ve witnessed it happening, with people describing apps such as Facebook ‘hearing’ a word they’ve said, then seeing adverts for that thing appear online.
Facebook has always vigorously denied that it ‘listens’ to phone microphones to serve up adverts – but one security expert claims that your phone apps really are listening to you all the time.
Dr Peter Henway of security firm Asterisk told Vice, ‘From time to time, snippets of audio do go back to servers but there’s no official understanding what the triggers for that are.
‘Whether it’s timing or location-based or usage of certain functions, [certain apps] are certainly pulling those microphone permissions and using those periodically.
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Dr Henway claims that some firms may use this data for advertising.
He said, ‘Seeing as Google are open about it, I would personally assume the other companies are doing the same.’
‘Really, there’s no reason they wouldn’t be. It makes good sense from a marketing standpoint and their end-user agreements and the law both allow it, so I would assume they’re doing it, but there’s no way to be sure.’
In questions from American politicians this year, Mark Zuckerberg flatly denied that Facebook listens to phone microphones to target adverts at users.
Senator Gary Peters said, ‘Yes or no, does Facebook use audio obtained from mobile devices to enrich personal information about users?’
‘No,’ said Zuckerberg.
People often claim that Facebook has begun to display adverts after they said something near a mobile – but Facebook has always denied this.
Experts suggest that these ‘coincidences’ are caused by a sort of confirmation bias known as Frequency Illusion – where you learn about something, and then start seeing it everywhere.
Rob Goldman, the company’s vice president of advertising, said in 2017, ‘I run ads product at Facebook. We don’t – and have never – used your microphone for ads. Just not true.’
Facebook said in 2016, ‘We only access your microphone if you have given our app permission and if you are actively using a specific feature that requires audio.
‘This might include recording a video or using an optional feature we introduced two years ago to include music or other audio in your status updates.’
