Facebook Denies the Charge of ‘Listening’ to Everyday Conversations

One of the Facebook’s executive denied that the social networking giant is using a device’s microphone to overhear the conversations of users for sending them relevant ads.

Many people reported seeing advertisements on Facebook that were very much related to their recent life happenings and real-life conversations.

The presenter of a tech podcast Reply All—PJ Vogt has asked for the details of these occurrences. In response to this, the vice president of Facebook’s ads Rob Goldman said that he runs ads on the tech giant but have never ever used user’s microphones for ads.

Also Read: Facebook and WhatsApp to Meet EU Taskforce for Non-Compliance Charges

In another tweet, Goldman was asked the same question by some user relating Instagram which is also owned by Facebook and to it, even his answer was a denial of any such activity.

On Twitter, the tweet posted by PJ Vogt got many responses. One of the people, named Tori Hoover inked that he received an ad about proposing someone just minutes after he proposed somebody. He claims that he never mentioned to anybody before proposing about his intentions.

Another user Brigitte Bonasoro wrote that she got a burn earlier this year. She talked about it in person with her partner and then went to buy the burn cream and later saw an ad for the same cream, purchased.

Facebook has been denying the allegation from 2016 in a statement on its website. It said that ads are shown based upon the peoples’ profiles, likes, and interests not upon things people talk about in person.

One possible theory is that the ads and their relatedness to people are purely spontaneous. The ad may or may not have appeared before, but the user did not notice it until some relevance was found.

BBC While investigating that whether the smartphones are hearing to everyday real life conversation last year also talked to a Mathematics Professor at Imperial College London—David Hand according to the professor if something has a minute chance of happening and its given chances to happen then it will happen for sure. People are evolutionarily qualified to look up for explanations.

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