Facebook’s ability to know your innermost secrets is apparent based on the number of people complaining about the social media’s company ability to anticipate what they want after they’ve had a conversation with a friend an ad about the topic they were discussing pops up in their profile. Are they tapping into the microphone on your phone? Is Facebook listening to you?
“Absolutely. They’re not listening through the microphone on your phone, but when they know who you’re talking to, where you’re talking to them what your common interest are, they can gather what that conversation is about. It’s as though they’re in the room with you,” says Jamie Court, president of Consumer Watchdog.
We don’t understand the complexities or capabilities of the algorithms employed by tech firms to analyze the human condition and use that to predict our behavior. They like it that way.
“And that’s why people have this eerie, creepy feeling sometimes that there is a microphone on their phone Facebook is listening to them with because they get pop up ads or marketing that suggests Facebook was eavesdropping on them,” says Court.
No, they aren’t listening.
“In a virtual sense, Facebook is eavesdropping on you,” he says. But they aren’t listening to you. You’re telling them.