Little-Known Facebook Feature Causing Users to Think Twice About What They Say

(May 26, 2016: Clarice Palmer : ANTIMEDIA reproduced under Creative commons licence)

The debate over Internet privacy and the responsibility social media companies should carry in protecting user privacy never ceases to spark controversy — among both users and tech insiders. But while Facebook, one of the most popular social media networks, struggles with accusations of news suppression and even fraud, a new report on the network’s microphone settings is reigniting past fears of surveillance that were never fully addressed.

According to University of South Florida Professor Kelli Burns, Facebook is a huge part of the lives of smartphone users. Due to this widespread addiction, Burns explains, “Anytime you’re using your phone, any kind of information that you’re putting into your phone, looking at on your phone, Facebook can access that.” But details regarding what you’re doing or what you’re browsing while on Facebook are not the only type of data the Silicon Valley giant can access. The social media’s microphone feature, which can be enabled by the user via Facebook’s settings, is also listening.

A few months back, a Facebook user took their concerns over the microphone settings to Reddit. The post quickly went viral, prompting Facebook to issue a statement on the matter. According to the social media network, the company does not “record your conversations.” Instead, the statement claimed, if the user chooses to turn the microphone feature on, Facebook will “use your microphone to identify the things you’re listening to or watching based on the music and TV matches we’re able to identify. If this feature is turned on, it’s only active when you’re writing a status update.”

But According to ABC’s WFLA, Burns might have been able to prove Facebook isn’t telling the whole story behind this technology.

From the publication:
“We tested the theory with Kelli, and even we were surprised by what we found and saw.
“Kelli enabled the microphone feature and talked about her desire to go on safari, right down to her mode of transportation. ‘I’m really interested in going on an African safari. I think it’d be wonderful to ride in one of those jeeps,’ she said aloud, phone in hand.

“Less than 60 seconds later, the first post on her Facebook feed was a safari story that seemed to pop up out of nowhere. Turns out, it was a story that had been posted three hours earlier. And, after mentioning a jeep, a car ad also appeared on her page.”

This test, the news organization contended, demonstrates how Facebook picks up “buzz words” in order to show that particular user ads and posts matching their interests. The fact the professor made those comments after turning the feature on may serve as an example of how easily Facebook can trick users into giving the company access to their private conversations.

Though Facebook claims it does not store or share user information, the very existence of the technology may give hackers, including government-backed security experts, a reason to explore private data further, putting the privacy — and even safety — of Facebook users in danger. What’s more concerning about this issue is the company’s previous association with the U.S. National Security Agency’s PRISM program, which gave federal agents access to users’ private data, including, emails, photos, and instant messages, among other things. While Facebook’s more recent claims concerning user privacy regarding the microphone feature might be legitimate, the company’s former cooperation with NSA officials could indicate the feds may seek to explore the microphone feature — whether Facebook agrees with them or not.

Smart TV manufacturers like Samsung have recently been forced to publicly address privacy concerns after news broke the technology was listening to users’ conversations. As the same users learn Android Smart TVs may also present vulnerabilities that give hackers the ability to record what they do, other members of the tech industry, like Facebook, might also face growing obstacles and skepticism from users.

In contrast, though Apple has aligned with the federal government in at least one case, the company was widely praised for standing for privacy rights in a legal standoff involving the FBI over the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone. But unlike Apple, whose hesitation regarding lobbying practices has earned negative attention from Congress in the past, Facebook has a relatively cozy relationship with Washington. Whether this relationship is mutually beneficial to both parties — and whether Facebook will respond like Apple has — remains to be seen.

---

This article (Little-Known Facebook Feature Causing Users to Think Twice About What They Say) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Clarice Palmer and theAntiMedia.org. Anti-Media Radio airs weeknights at 11 pm Eastern/8 pm Pacific. If you spot a typo, please email the error and name of the article at edits@theantimedia.org.




 

RELATED POSTS:

Is it possible to eradicate all diseases?

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife have dreamed up this great money making scheme. They have announced they will try to eradicate all diseases by the end of the century. It follows down the same path of greed and self interest previously trodden by Bill and Melinda Gates and their Gates Foundation which has been so sucessful in its efforts to eradicate disease and poverty that it now gets $2 from governments and the United Nations for every $1 it spends ...




Evidence Points To Another Snowden At The NSA
Last week, following the news that The Clinton Foundation, the computer networks of Hillary Clinton's election campaign and the US Democratic Party and also the servers operated by 'philanthropic' organisation Open Society Foundation - really a front for meddling by the billionaire left wing activist George Soros in international politics, had been hacked, we learned of a previously unknown hacker collective, "The Shadow Brokers". These hackers claimed they had hacked hacking tools from the NSA's own special-ops entity, the "Equation Group", and released these into the public domain.


Cellular Technology: Can Governments Use It To Rearrange Your Brain
The controversies around cellular technology and the cellular masts or towers that make up the network grids just will not go away. It is not just the issue of do cellphone damage brain tissue that concerns us now, but certain rumours about what might be transmitted from the masts into the electro-magnetic mush that surrounds us all.

Shock, Horror! Millennials Safe Space Violated As Facebook Algo Accident Exposes Them To Diverse Ideas
Late last month (August 2016,) the Zuckerbugger's zoons put an algorithm in charge of the Facebook “trending” feature, to select the most popular topics, articles and keywords on the web in a narrow timeframe and with due respect for the 'safe space' of millenials who can be traumatised if they encounter microaggrrrrressions in the form of controversial ideas or unorthodox opinions ...

Google, Facebook, Amazon: algorithms will soon rule our lives so we'd better understand how they work

One of the most interesting announcements in last week's Budget – well, for me at least, as someone who has no savings and doesn’t play bingo or drink much – was the new Alan Turing Institute: £220 million of government support will be invested into "big data and algorithm" research.

Wikileaks Vault7 Release Reveals CIA Contamination Of Apple Devices

EU Politicians Slam New Tax Deal That Lets Big Business Avoid Probes
Facebook Hamstrung In France; India Outlaws Its Free-Net Service
Facebook begins Europe-wide censorship campaign against free speech.
Google, Facebook and Twitter Yield to German Govt Demand to Censor Anti-Migrant ‘Hate Speech’ (aka Free Speech)
German Politician Calls On Facebook To Abolish Free Speech
Thousands To Make Legal Stand Against UK Government Surveillance
New German Government Smartphone Spyware Will Monitor Citizens’ Calls, Typing AND See Through Their Camera Lenses
John Kerry Calls For The Internet To Be Placed Under The Authority Of The United Nations
Artificial Intelligence: Will It Kill Human Society?
Facebook Are Nazis - We Told You So



Elsewhere: [ The Original Boggart Blog] ... Daily Stirrer ...[Little Nicky Machiavelli]... [ Ian's Authorsden Pages ]... [Scribd]...[Wikinut] ... [ Boggart Abroad] ... [ Grenteeth Bites ] ... Ian Thorpe at Flickr ] ... [ Tumblr ] ... [Ian at Minds ] ... [ Authorsden blog ] ... [Daily Stirrer News Aggregator]

Woman Leaves Politically Correct Politicians Gobsmacked As She Claim Immigrants Prioritised Over Disabled People For Social Housing

An angry woman voters who claims her disabled mother has been bumped down the social housing waiting list because immigrants are prioritised, stunned politically correct Europhile politicians during the first Brexit TV debate broadcast by the BBC last night. Emily Wood laid into the smug, self righteous pro-Brussels politicians in a heated exchange on the EU in a broadcast dominated by the immigration issue and the effect mass immigration and huge nimbers of illegal immigrants has on Britain.

In a stunning attack Ms. Wood, a music producer, from Dorset, revealed her disabled mother had been bounced down the waiting list for a single storey house by town council bueaucrats who, allegedly acting on instructions from central government, prioritise immigrants for all social housing, demanding: "Where are we going to put them all?"

Anti EU cmapaingner Emily Wood who claims her mother is being blocked from social housing because priority is given to immigrants (picture source: Daily Express

Woods passionate plea to voters to support leaving the EU, Brexit, came just hours after official figures revealed that net migration has soared to 333,000 in the year to December, the second highest annual level on record. This is in spite of government promises to reduce net immigration to tens of thousands. One of the main campaign claims made by supporters of Brexit is that Britain cannot possibly regain control of its borders while the country is part of the European Union.

The point about immigrants abusing the social housing system at a time when Britain has a serious housing crisis is well made. Due to crazy purchase prices and rents in the private housing sector, many families and single people are unable to afford their own home, and social housing is being given to immigrants in order that they may cheat the system. All this week, 23 - 27 May 2016, on daytime TV (which us disabled, retired people have free time to watch,) the BBC has been running a documentary series on abuses of the social housing system. Day after day cases were highlighted in which unscrupulous people had fraudulently obtained tenancies of local authority or housing association owned properties, claimed housing allowance in the name of a fictitious tenant to cover the rent, and then sub - let properties designed for a couple of a family to three or four tenants.

As the other audience members supported Emily Wood and tried to make left wing politicians acknowledge the impact immigration has on access to housing for young people and lower income families, Miss Wood rounded on pro-Brexit former SNP leader Alex Salmond and Labour’s Alan Johnson, who said people were wrong to link the houseing crisis to immigration. Neither could satisfactorily explain what is causing it of course, maybe its because not enough of us believe in the 'house fairy'. Left wing and politically correct thinkers certainly seem to believe utopian can be delivered but only if everyone wished hard enough.

When Salmond replied to Ms Wood's point about housing ans immigration levels by saying: "I wouldn't make that connection - if we have a housing shortage, we should build more houses, not kick people out of the country." she hit back by saying:

"How the heck are we meant to house them when we haven't got enough houses as it is? Where are you going to put them? Where?"

The BBC debate was skewed by pro - EU audience member using the usual left wing tactic of trying to shout down anyone who opposed their views. Asked for his thoughts on the row, former Tory defence secretary Liam Fox said Britain should use the £10 billion a year we sent to the EU to pay for more housing and to boost the NHS.

He said: “Does anybody think we could not use £10billion to help improve the quality of health service, housing or anything else?"

UKIP’s Diane James, also representing Brexit, told another young voter that they stood virtually no chance of ever affording a home if we stay in the EU because immigration is pushing prices out of ordinary people’s reach.

Much like the referendum campaign itself, the conversation during a fractious and at time uncontrolled debate focused on the twin subjects of immigration and the economy.



RELATED POSTS:


German Streets Descend Into Lawlessness -part 1

During the first six months of 2016, migrants committed 142,500 crimes, according to the Federal Criminal Police Office. This is equivalent to 780 crimes committed by migrants every day. The data includes only those crimes in which a suspect has been caught. Thousands of migrants who entered the country as "asylum seekers" or "refugees" have gone missing. Many are thought to be engaging in robbery and criminal violence.


Useful Infidels Helping Fundamentalists Islamise The West
A left wing academic whose research was used to make the case for an investigation into Sharia courts in the UK has warned that liberals and 'progressives' are enabling fundamentalists to spead extremistS Islam in the West. Dutch legal scholar Machteld Zee said that if politically correct thinking stifles fair criticism of Islam, helping fundamentalist Muslims segregate Islamic communities and encourage them to be more religious and insular.


Migrants Consider Quitting Violent Sweden To Return To War-Zone Homelands For Safety
The Swedish ruling elite's politically correct obsession with immigrants has turned parts of this once peaceful, civilised and safe country into a lawless hell hole and borderline failed state. Perhaps the clearest indication of how bad things are in Sweden now is the news that Sweden is now so dystopian even migrants from some of the most violent and chaotic areas of Africa and the middle east want to return to their homelands

No Easy Answers For Immigration
The most sensible immigration policy is one that matches demand for labour with supply. While ensuring compassion and capacity for genuine refugees, we should take care that new arrivals looking for 'a better life' do not land in such numbers they become a burden on those that host them.
When A White Guy Killed Immigrants In Sweden It Was Terrorism, When An African Immigrant Killed White People, It Was The Victim's Fault. Why?
Surging Support for Germany’s Anti Immigration AfD Party Shows Contempt For Merkel's Open Doors Policy
Pegida Organizes Anti-Islamization Protests Throughout Europe
Are The Ruling Elites waking Up At Last To The Problems Cause By Mass Muslim Immigration?
"Our Europe Is Dying": Young Germans Video Blasts Merkel's "Multicultural Utopia": Censored By Facebook.
Women Fear To Go Out Alone In Danish Town Due to Migrant Assaults
Landmark Report Explodes The Myth Of Economic Benefits From Mass Immigration
Sweden ‘Facing Collapse’ Thanks To Migrant Influx, Foreign Minister Warns
Le Pen's Front National On Course For President As Migrant Opposition Grows In France
Warring Migrant Tribes, Street Shootouts, Grenade Attacks, Government Says Its Multiculturalism? WTF Is Going On In Sweden?
No Go Zones For Whites In Swedish Cities
Europe posts menu

Help! Immigrants have taken over our town, pleads German Mayor

The mayor of ski resort Garmisch-Partenkirchen, in Bravaria, has sent a plea for help to the regional government begging for help in tackling the problem of crime among refugees. Police officers say "blacks are in charge of the town." The letter, intended to serve as a warning to authorities in Germany's immigrant hot spots, has been sent by Mayor Sigrid Meierhofer on Sunday, according to Merkur newspaper


Elsewhere: [ The Original Boggart Blog] ... Daily Stirrer ...[Little Nicky Machiavelli]... [ Ian's Authorsden Pages ]... [Scribd]...[Wikinut] ... [ Boggart Abroad] ... [ Grenteeth Bites ] ... Ian Thorpe at Flickr ] ... [ Tumblr ] ... [Ian at Minds ] ... [ Authorsden blog ] ... [Daily Stirrer News Aggregator]