I’m curious as to whether it’s a rumour. I’m an iOS developer, and I know how difficult and seemingly implausible these rumours are, but the causal evidence to the contrary I’ve experienced is too ‘Black Mirror’ for my liking, or others.
I have troubles convincing myself it’s not true because it just happens on an almost bi-daily basis - it’s too accurate and it regularly involves things either my friends or I have definitively not typed but only spoken about.
While anything's possible, it would be pretty shocking and a big blow to Apple if Facebook figured out how to, on iOS (I can't speak for Android):
* Record audio if the app's killed completely
* Record audio with microphone permission disabled
* etc.
All of which have been claimed and seem unlikely.
The far more likely scenario is that we're much more predictable than we think. Remember the target controversy when they figured out a teenage girl was pregnant before she had told her parents [1]? That happened in 2012. Imagine how much more advanced things have become since then.
I understand these things. I explained that explicitly. I had already seen that post.
But I explained that I'm a developer. I used the term 'implausible', and, yes, given legal requirements and whatnot there would have to be some extremely shady activity going on, but what I'm trying to explain is that whatever is going on has nothing to do with text or anything except spoken voice and occurs on such a regular basis to not just myself but other friends of mine that even though I absolutely know from a scientific perspective it's almost technically impossible, I literally have troubles believing it's technical implausibility/impossibility over the fact that it is simply happening.
That's how messed up and creepy it is. And I'm certainly not the only one saying or experiencing this. Many of the incredibly intelligent and talented developers at the major bank I work at have also experienced this and have extreme troubles explaining it. Many of the brilliant minds here at HN are having to say similar things.
It's like something out of Scooby-Doo. I want to pull the mask off the bad guy, but it really feels like one of those one-offs where the monster is real.
I'm a developer too and I know it doesn't sound technically possible, but after FB's behavior it really wouldn't surprise me. Collecting copies of every SMS from Android phones via Messenger when it only advertised using Messenger to send/receive SMS alongside FB messages? Downright lies and abusive to privacy.
Most of us knew how poor Facebook's developer data policy was and no one cared until Cambridge Analytica. I'm just waiting for this voice scandal to happen in the next year or two.
There are a lot of sources for error here. 1. You may pay more attention to ads you wouldn't have noticed. 2. Something prompted you to say what you said and Facebook may be aware of that cause. 3. Your behavior may change as a result of having said it and Facebook may pick up on that.
There is a solution to all this. A (repeated) double blind experiment.
Pick two phrases. Say one so the phone can hear and one so it can't. It's very important you don't know which is which. You could eg have a friend put the phone in one of two rooms.
Are you sure that your friends haven't searched for whatever FB suggested? Perhaps not even the exact thing but something similar or associated (e.g. searched for dog treats, sees ads for dog beds)? Have you visited a place that sells that thing with location services enabled? Do your friends express a lot of interest in the things advertised (posts, pictures, comments on any FB platform)? Do you spend a decent amount of time with these friends? What about other people that use the same home/work networks that you do?
Being able to accurately predict what you might be interested in, or at least interested enough to click on is how FB makes their money. That is where a bulk of their R&D spend goes. Couple that with the fact that humans are creatures of habit and relatively predictable, and you can end up with the notion that FB or Google must be listening in on everything you are saying.
> Are you sure that your friends haven't searched for whatever FB suggested?
Absolutely, beyond a shadow of a doubt, in several instances. Too many, at this point.
>> Perhaps not even the exact thing but something similar or associated (e.g. searched for dog treats, sees ads for dog beds)?
Definitely not. These things are often obscure, and many times, said in jest, and never repeated via texts, and certainly never looked up in a serious context.
>> Have you visited a place that sells that thing with location services enabled?
I keep all of my location services disabled by default. I do enough development to know that's a poor idea.
>> Do your friends express a lot of interest in the things advertised (posts, pictures, comments on any FB platform)?
No, again, I think it's that these things are often said or suggested in a joking manner that really throws my friends and I off a lot of the time.
>> Do you spend a decent amount of time with these friends? What about other people that use the same home/work networks that you do?
For sure. I spend a lot of time with a lot of my friends, and again, these things are observed by co-workers as well, our security is extremely tight at my office, so the idea that could be exploited in any way by something like Facebook is disturbing at best.
Frankly, the fact that you have to ask me these things alone is evidence enough as-is that there is an insane amount of intrusiveness going on.
I have troubles convincing myself it’s not true because it just happens on an almost bi-daily basis - it’s too accurate and it regularly involves things either my friends or I have definitively not typed but only spoken about.
It’s creepy as hell.