Facebook App can spy on your conversations?

Rumours about Facebook launching an app that can listen to your conversations via the phone microphone have been spreading across the Internet.

An excerpt of the rumour can be read below –

Facebook just announced a new feature to its app, which will let it listen to our conversations and surroundings through our own phones’ microphone. Talk about a Big Brother move.

Facebook says the feature will be used for harmless things, like identifying the song or TV show playing in the background, but by using the phone’s microphone every time you write a status update, it has the ability to listen to everything.

The rumours are based on a legitimate proposed update to the Facebook app that runs on your smartphone, but omits important information in order to make the update appear much more nefarious that it really is.

Firstly and perhaps most importantly is that the feature is “opt-in” which means a user would have to explicitly agree to and switch on the feature before it could be used.

Secondly it is worth noting that despite the assertion that the app can “spy” on your conversations, the feature only has the ability to record sound via the microphone when a user opens up the Facebook app and enters a “Compose” window, – i.e. the window you open when you are planning on writing a new update. Contrary to the implication in the warning, your phone does not have the ability to listen to anything when you are not actively using the Facebook app and in a “Compose” window. A blue bar in the corner of the Facebook app will show the user that the feature is currently listening through the microphone, and this can be turned off at any point.

Thirdly, there are already plenty of apps that have risen in popularity that essentially do the same thing, including SoundHound and Shazam. Whilst these are standalone apps, the Facebook app update will do the same thing, and Facebook have claimed that they do not plan on storing audio for other uses.

If you do not want to give Facebook the ability to record sound when you compose a status update, or if you do not trust Facebook to use the feature responsibility, then simply do not install the feature. Whilst there is plenty to worry about when it comes to Facebook and privacy, circulating alarmist information that omits important facts ultimately does nothing to help.

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