Here’s How Facebook Can Now Listen To Your Private Conversations - IBT/RawStory [View all]

[WillyT]

Here’s how Facebook can now listen to your private conversations
By Anthony Smith - International Business Times
Friday, May 23, 2014 4:55 EDT

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On the same day that Facebook touted sweeping new efforts to protect users’ privacy, the company confirmed that it plans to save data captured by smartphone microphones, potentially enabling the social media giant to listen in on private conversations.

In a press release issued Wednesday, Facebook announced a forthcoming app update in which a new feature uses the phone's microphone to capture sounds in the user's environment, then identifies the song, movie or television show the user is watching based on what it hears. Once the sound is ID'd, users have the option to share it as a visual component of their posts.

Though Facebook assured that "no sound is stored,” the company acknowledged to International Business Times that it does intend to archive the data gleaned. The company did not discuss whether it plans to use the same feature to gather data from other sounds heard by the microphone, such as users' discussions about their medications or their children.

Though Facebook noted that it intends to make such data anonymous, the sheer scale of its network -- 1.2 billion users worldwide -- renders such information a veritable treasure trove for, say, advertisers keen to study the tastes and inclinations of the public at large. Facebook did not respond to IBTimes’ question on whether it intends to sell the data to third parties.

The disclosure that Facebook has designs on gaining access to smartphone microphones seems certain to open up a new front in the volatile debate over privacy. Already, tech companies find new ways to track user behavior, and there is increasing unease in the U.S. and around the world over the extent of data harvesting by the National Security Agency.

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Link: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/05/23/heres-how-facebook-can-now-listen-to-your-private-conversations/