We've always suspected that our phones, and more specifically, the Facebook apps on our phones, listen in on our conversations without our consent. We've all had that weird moment where an adverts referring to things they had only just been talking about suddenly appears on our Facebook homepage, and the internet is full of countless stories of the same thing happening. Take this Medium post, where a guy called Damian Le Nouaille wrote about talking to his cousin about a very specific, niche product, only for it to appear in his Instagram feed as a sponsored post the next day.
Others have told the BBC of their story - one saw adverts for mattresses after discussing them with a friend, another talked about bin storage. There's even a story doing the rounds of someone who saw an advert about cat food after talking about cats with someone.
These are too bizarre to just be coincidences, right? Facebook must have access to your phone's microphone, right?
Not according to Facebook.
They deny eavesdropping through the phone’s microphone, but instead focus on what a person’s interest are or may be, and show adverts which follow suit to that, as well as their browser history. Check out the below tweet from Facebook's VP of product, Rob Goldman:
Not only would this be breaking multiple App Store Guidelines, but it would also be illegal and potentially be a breach of human rights by invading personal privacy - specifically, Article 8.
It could happen though? Maybe? After all, iPhone apps can open at any time without informing you, as demonstrated by Felix Krause, who built an app that takes a picture every second and uploads it without the user knowing, to prove this point.
He says that once apps have initial access to your camera and microphone, it can use it whenever. Once allowed it can only be turned off in the systems settings.
But the major corporation argue it is merely coincidence. They say that people only recognize those adverts after they have just been talking about it since it is still fresh in their minds.
People spend multiple hours a day online, and much of that is spent ignoring irrelevant adverts. But the moment you see something that links to something in your life, you notice it.
So perhaps these conspiracies are just that - conspiracies. I hope so. It’s too scary living in a world where we rarely find freedom from our phones. We face a constant stream of information daily – we all know how difficult it is to switch off. And now, even when we do, we can’t escape. Or so it seems…
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.