Facebook Denies They’re Eavesdropping On You Through Your Phone’s Mic

We know that many of you guys have had conversations with friends in real-life, only to open Facebook or Instagram and suddenly you’ve been served up ads based on the topic that you were just talking about. Some might chalk it up to coincidence, but others believe that Facebook is somehow listening to you through your phone’s microphone.

Whether or not you believe in that theory is a different story, but Facebook wants to settle the record once and for all that they do not, and never have, used your phone’s microphone to spy on you just to serve up ads. This is according to a tweet by Facebook’s VP of Ads Rob Goldman who posted on Twitter (via TNW), “I run ads product at Facebook. We don’t – and have never – used your microphone for ads. Just not true.”

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I run ads product at Facebook. We don’t – and have never – used your microphone for ads. Just not true.

— Rob Goldman (@robjective) October 26, 2017

When asked if this also applied to Instagram, Goldman replied in the affirmative, as in that neither does Instagram use your phone’s microphone to spy on you to serve up targeted ads. In recent times we’ve started to see how more companies are introducing privacy features to its software and services.

For example Apple introduced a new privacy feature for its Safari browser that prevents the tracking of users across the internet, meaning that those creepy targeted ads won’t follow you as you browse from website to website, something that advertisers weren’t too thrilled about. As for Facebook and Instagram, we guess the official word is that they do not eavesdrop on you, so it looks like freaky coincidence will have to do for now.

Tyler Lee
Categories: General
Tags: Facebook, Privacy