No, Facebook isn’t using your phone to eavesdrop on your conversations - but it is tracking you online
Kelli Burns may go down in history - or at least in Google search - as the professor who claimed, definitively, that Facebook “eavesdrops” on its mobile users.
Her comments, reported in a Tampa TV news segment two weeks ago, have sparked a global panic about corporate surveillance and personal privacy. The claim that Facebook is always logging the ambient audio from your iPhone or Android mic has been repeated everywhere from Pakistan to Armenia.
There’s only one problem: Burns, a communications professor at the University of South Florida, never said that. In fact, she doesn’t believe that Facebook is “spying” on anyone’s calls.
“This story has really gotten out of hand,” sighed Burns, who has taken to her blog to try to set the record straight. “I really don’t think Facebook is eavesdropping on us. I don’t believe it and I don’t have any evidence of it.”
None of this means you Facebook users should worry about microphone eavesdropping. But online privacy is a much broader issue. Some of the “suspect” juxtapositions people have flagged, for instance, can surely be attributed to Facebook’s pervasive non-audio tracking. The company has stated publicly that it crafts complex, many-factored profiles based on everything from the pages users like to the posts they read. Since 2014, Facebook has also kept track of users’ browsing data to inform the ads in their feed.
As of May 27, moreover, you don’t even have to be a Facebook user for the company to track your behaviour online. An expansion to its ad platform means Facebook now gathers data on all Internet users to surface ads on third-party sites.
“Facebook is tracking you,” Burns said. “Not what you say, but things like your contacts and your location. There’s a lot of personal information you give up any time you’re on your phone ... often without realising it.”
Kelli Burns may go down in history - or at least in Google search - as the professor who claimed, definitively, that Facebook “eavesdrops” on its mobile users.
Her comments, reported in a Tampa TV news segment two weeks ago, have sparked a global panic about corporate surveillance and personal privacy. The claim that Facebook is always logging the ambient audio from your iPhone or Android mic has been repeated everywhere from Pakistan to Armenia.
There’s only one problem: Burns, a communications professor at the University of South Florida, never said that. In fact, she doesn’t believe that Facebook is “spying” on anyone’s calls.
“This story has really gotten out of hand,” sighed Burns, who has taken to her blog to try to set the record straight. “I really don’t think Facebook is eavesdropping on us. I don’t believe it and I don’t have any evidence of it.”
None of this means you Facebook users should worry about microphone eavesdropping. But online privacy is a much broader issue. Some of the “suspect” juxtapositions people have flagged, for instance, can surely be attributed to Facebook’s pervasive non-audio tracking. The company has stated publicly that it crafts complex, many-factored profiles based on everything from the pages users like to the posts they read. Since 2014, Facebook has also kept track of users’ browsing data to inform the ads in their feed.
As of May 27, moreover, you don’t even have to be a Facebook user for the company to track your behaviour online. An expansion to its ad platform means Facebook now gathers data on all Internet users to surface ads on third-party sites.
“Facebook is tracking you,” Burns said. “Not what you say, but things like your contacts and your location. There’s a lot of personal information you give up any time you’re on your phone ... often without realising it.”
