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[Khalifa Jayy]

Inspired by these two Reddit threads:

OP observes how Facebook's mobile app served him pest control ads immediately after he started a conversation about pest control (and not before), implying it is listening to him through the mic. Other Redditors share eerily similar experiences.

Facebook listening to conversations through microphone?

Can anyone confirm whether Facebook or Instagram picks up conversations through the iPhone microphone for targeted advertisements?

I've recently had two strange occurrences where Facebook ads related to conversations have mysteriously appeared within minutes of discussing something highly specific.

Thought maybe a developer here might be more familiar with this issue because I can't confirm this otherwise.

Anyone with similar experiences?!?

EDIT: This post has attracted considerable attention, so I'd like to add a few details.

After finding and killing a cockroach in my condo, my girlfriend and I were discussing the need for bug spray and our general disgust for bugs. Perhaps, I was speaking quite frantically and loudly because I'm terrified of bugs.

After the incident, we made no internet searches of any kind whatsoeve. Nor have I ever searched for anything related to bugs or pest control because mere images freak me out. Yet, within 7-10 minutes of the fracas, an ad -appeared on Facebook (on my iPhone) with large pictures of creepy crawlies and the caption "Need Pest Control?"

We were immediately creeped out by the ad's apparent prescience, and the only explanation we could contrive was that Facebook had picked up on something we said from the microphone.

I quickly checked my settings and Facebook had never requested access to my microphone. Instagram had, but I denied it access. Then, at the behest of my girlfriend, I made this post to see if anyone else had experience something similar.

If the eavesdropping were occurring, this would obviously be a huge circumvention of Apple's policies and an invasion of privacy by Facebook. This would present a massive liability for Facebook; thus, I am inclined to believe that it is mere coincidence. But the eeriness of the event remains and is only exacerbated by the corroborating experiences of my fellow redditors.

This just happened to me the other night! My friend was showing off some kitchen remodel stuff he was doing and pointed out that the previous people living there didn't use a cutting board on the now fucked up counter. So we started talking about new counter tops (eventually steel ones in specific). Immediately afterwards, I was getting advertisements for steel counter tops in several apps

Any of you ever experience this?

Someone claiming to be a "computer scientist" chimed in and the following series of remarks ensued:

Computer Scientist here!

It's really spooky, right? Facebook must be listening to what this guy was talking about, right?

Not necessarily.

Search and advertising companies — like Google, Facebook, and etcetera — make their living off being the middleman between you and what you need.

To do this, they employ statistics, probability, and detailed models. One such method is the Hidden Markov Model (excellent ELI5 here) and Bayesian networks — the same technologies that allow Siri to understand what your six-year-old kid is asking about, and keeps spam out of your email inboxes.

What this means, in plain English, is that humans are full of what magicians and conmen and poker players call tells, and they share those tells among others in their culture and peer group and generation and region.

This allows search companies to figure out what you're going to be looking for, before you do — without even needing you to mention the thing explicitly.

It's why Google and Target and etcetera get complaints from people who are wondering why they knew that they were pregnant before they told anyone else. Guess what — it was your anniversary a month ago, you stopped buying condoms, and there's a search for a hotel you booked for the weekend and the sexy purchases you made at the local Target, and you stopped buying Midol.

It's also possibly an example of the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon, where people ignore things in the environment around them, until their attention is directed to one or more of those things, and then they notice it much more.

Of course, it is also entirely possible that Facebook is listening to what you are saying, and using that — Facebook's messenger applications usually request use of the microphone and have been dinged by privacy advocates for having a component running in the background.

Maybe it's time for people to move to end-to-end encrypted communications that can't be eavesdropped on?

This doesn't describe why ads for Steel counter tops showed up in his feed when he was at a friends house and the topic was brought up randomly. Its not like this guy was searching for steel counter tops or even talking about counter tops until he was at his friends house.

Did he have geolocation (GPS) turned on?

Did he open Facebook at his friend's house?

Did he send a message or post from there?

Facebook could plausibly have known he was visiting his friend's house, facebook could plausibly know his friend did a kitchen remodel, facebook could plausibly know that people in a particular age bracket who own a home older than X years and are eligible for certain types of home equity loans, and who visit renovated homes, choose to renovate their own homes.

There's lots of ways to telegraph what you're doing, and lots of ways to analyse what does get telegraphed.

and someone replied with the following, which made me crack up:

See guys? They're not listening to your conversations. They're just tracking every aspect of your life . Don't you feel better?

 

[curb]

Not myself but it happens to my wife all the time. It's too often and too consistent to be coincidence.

 

[Somnid]

Facebook I believe uses queues from location as well as friends. You don't need to listen to know these things.

 

[Garrett Hawke]

Just opened Facebook on my phone and then proceeded to have a conversation with myself about cockroaches and pest control. Let's see.

 

[MarkMclovin]

Never experienced anything like that.

But I'm glad Google has now given the option to control permissions to apps on a more granular level.

 

[Khalifa Jayy]

Just opened Facebook on my phone and then proceeded to have a conversation with myself about cockroaches and pest control. Let's see.

Or maybe call someone and talk about it. Please give us an update!

 

[NoblesseOblige]

I thought Facebook basically said you have no privacy when using it.

 

[LyleLanley]

Facebook I believe uses queues from location as well as friends. You don't need to listen to know these things.

The cockroach/bug spray example seems rather specific though. The counter-top conversation is different though, I could potentially see how they would get that ad based on what their friends have done online.

 

[outunderthestars]

Shouldn't someone be able to sort through the code of the app to figure this out?

 

[Darth Karja]

I thought Facebook basically said you have no privacy when using it.

I think this is talking about it listening when you are not using it.

 

[snacknuts]

This is why I won't install any Facebook apps on my devices. I know Google does this kind of thing, too, but I am more comfortable with Google having the data, and I get much greater utility from their services.

 

[Somnid]

The cockroach/bug spray example seems rather specific though. The counter-top conversation is different though, I could potentially see how they would get that ad based on what their friends have done online.

It's not. If the apartment next to you searched for pest control it's likely you may have the same problem.

 

[QuantumBro]

Or perhaps the pest company planted the cockroach in their place and then targeted Facebook ads to them. We need to go deeper.

 

[Khalifa Jayy]

Another idea would be just general "demographics, trends, and statistics."

People your age, with your income, with your interests usually have these issues, interests, problems, etc. Yea?

 

[yogloo]

People in the area probably have pest problems. I would guess that it was a location targeted ads rather than facebook wiretapping them.

 

[Tobor]

This is why I won't install any Facebook apps on my devices. I know Google does this kind of thing, too, but I am more comfortable with Google having the data, and I get much greater utility from their services.

You're ok with Google but not with Facebook? What?

 

[LyleLanley]

It's not. If the apartment next to you searched for pest control it's likely you may have the same problem.

Ah, that's a good point.

 

[frankie_baby]

Not quite as spooky but I put a status up the other week asking where I could buy uv face paint and got an ad for the stuff minutes later, still freaked me out a little