Does facebook listen to conversations??
Discussion
OtherBusiness said:
Purely verbal conversation with a friend about bike helmets and also his new Skoda Octavia - Facebook mobile page showing adverts for both those things now.
It's quite possible that you have been browsing sites about bike helmets and he has been browsing sites about the Octavia - enough for FB to deduce that you are interested in maybe purchasing a bike helmet and he has purchased an Octavia .. and as you are FB friends you start getting ads about the Octavia as well as those related to your own browsing history.Not quite as dramatic as microphones secretly picking up your speech but in a way, even more terrifying as it shows just how much can be inferred from metadata and browsing histories which for sure are being tracked intensively.
If you take no measures at all to shield your privacy (as most will, er.. won't) the sort of intelligence profile that can be (and no doubt is being) built up about you is chilling.
Make sure you install an ad-blocker (eg. uBlock Origin), a tracking blocker (eg. Blur), clear your cookies and various histories regularly (CCleaner is a great utility for doing this with more or less one click) and employ anonymous browsing mode where possible. use startpage and duckduckgo for internet searches.
Also, keep your FB profile as minimal as possible. Don't go around clicking on likes and joining groups unless you have a genuine reason to do so.
Indeed Lucas, except that he doesn't have a Facebook account. Ergo it would never know what he has been looking at. Unless cookie policies are complete fiction and they share them all amongst themselves - FB can see Google cookies and so on. I don't cycle so have never looked at bike helmets, and haven't ever looked at Skodas 
Therefore, its definitely not cookie related. The last occurrence was a purely verbal conversation with my wife as I had a sore knee. Low and behold, an hour later I see adverts for knee replacement. And that is 100% definitely something that neither of us have ever searched or looked at online.
And yes I use adblocker, clear cookies regularly, etc etc. I also never post on FB or check in anywhere.
So unfortunately though I never wanted to believe that the phone is used for voice recognition the facts lead me to believe otherwise. Incidentally this is the FB mobile homepage, not even the app as I don't have that installed.
Therefore, its definitely not cookie related. The last occurrence was a purely verbal conversation with my wife as I had a sore knee. Low and behold, an hour later I see adverts for knee replacement. And that is 100% definitely something that neither of us have ever searched or looked at online.
And yes I use adblocker, clear cookies regularly, etc etc. I also never post on FB or check in anywhere.
So unfortunately though I never wanted to believe that the phone is used for voice recognition the facts lead me to believe otherwise. Incidentally this is the FB mobile homepage, not even the app as I don't have that installed.
Edited by OtherBusiness on Tuesday 21st March 16:38
Edited by OtherBusiness on Tuesday 21st March 16:46
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-an...
Google voice search records and keeps conversations people have around their phones – but the files can be deleted
I've just checked mine, its slightly concerning
Google voice search records and keeps conversations people have around their phones – but the files can be deleted
I've just checked mine, its slightly concerning
Edited by S10GTA on Friday 31st March 13:25
S10GTA said:
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-an...
Google voice search records and keeps conversations people have around their phones – but the files can be deleted
I've just checked mine, its slightly concerning
Mine is empty, I guess it's only recording/ storing for people that don't have their phone security locked down.Google voice search records and keeps conversations people have around their phones – but the files can be deleted
I've just checked mine, its slightly concerning
Edited by S10GTA on Friday 31st March 13:25
i was having a chat with a friend of mine,on an android phone , which might be relevent.
he was telling me his son was replacing the springs on his car. i asked if he had spring compressors. the next day i had adverts on facebook for spring compressors. i did not google that term or look up a price.
my friend has zero interest in smartphones, he has an old nokia. he may have googled , from his laptop for spring compressors, i have not asked him.
he was telling me his son was replacing the springs on his car. i asked if he had spring compressors. the next day i had adverts on facebook for spring compressors. i did not google that term or look up a price.
my friend has zero interest in smartphones, he has an old nokia. he may have googled , from his laptop for spring compressors, i have not asked him.
wazztie16 said:
Just like the government denied they were listening in on us.Terminator X said:
We have 2 laptops, one desktop and 3 smart phones in the house. It doesn't matter which one is used for a search, immediately afterwards I get ads for that product on my phone when on facebook. Be careful what you search for people 
TX.
Add the disconnect extension to your laptop web browser. TX.
Search with Duckduckgo rather than Google
Use an app on your phone like Start Page or Disconnect for searches. If you have a Samsung phone and use their browser Disconnect do an extension for that too to stop all the tracking.
If you are really paranoid start using a Tor Browser or better still Tor VPN for everything.
They're watching you...
OtherBusiness said:
Purely verbal conversation with a friend about bike helmets and also his new Skoda Octavia - Facebook mobile page showing adverts for both those things now.
Same with me, noticed this almost 1 year ago and I thought I was going mad. Tested it a few times saying random products and services and FB pops it up in adverts. Doesn't sit well with me.
Here we go :
I'm listening to #109 Is Facebook Spying on You? on Reply All with @TuneIn. #NowPlaying http://tun.in/ticsHi
I'm listening to #109 Is Facebook Spying on You? on Reply All with @TuneIn. #NowPlaying http://tun.in/ticsHi
Order66 said:
Did that other "something" have a FB like button? Did you log into FB while in Incognito? Incognito tabs are only about tracking your history on your local machine - if any page has a FB like (or hidden pixel etc) then the FB server still gets a hold of the incoming IP address. So when looking to serve ads, it will see what records it has for that IP address and serve ads accordingly.
People need to keep a general awareness that browsing the web is a 2-way conversation, your IP address (and more) are transmitted to the other side in order to retrieve every single bit of data you are seeing - its not like TV where it is broadcasting anyway and you chose to only receive.
So if I log out of facebook on the machine I'm using to browse, will it stop it?People need to keep a general awareness that browsing the web is a 2-way conversation, your IP address (and more) are transmitted to the other side in order to retrieve every single bit of data you are seeing - its not like TV where it is broadcasting anyway and you chose to only receive.
I only want to purchase a couple of christmas presents without sitting down on the sofa later, picking up my tablet with mrs hairy sat beside me only for facebook to go "look look what bens been up to"
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