9 ms·

No. I work for Facebook. This doesn't happen.

DavidSJ 10y ago
I doubt that it happens myself, but out of curiosity, are you saying this because you are in a privileged position to know for sure that Facebook doesn't do this, or are you saying this based on your experience of the corporate culture?
- alfiedotwtf 10y ago
  > are you saying this because you are in a privileged position to know for sure that Facebook doesn't do this I'd like to add "and will not do it in the future"
- renaudg 10y ago
  I also used to be an engineer at Facebook. Definitely the corporate culture wouldn't allow anything like this. Believe it or not, many FB engineers have some kind of free software / civil liberties background in their past, and most people don't seem to realize that A) they have options, they can and would walk out if they witnessed anything shady B) the company has enough fake scandals wound up by the press as it is, to risk doing something genuinely evil for short term gain, and have a former employee eventually blow the whistle on. One controversy after the other, during my time at Facebook I witnessed the chasm between the mostly innocent motivations behind a product feature, and what the press / outside world made of it. This experience probably taught me as much about media cycles and conspiracy theory dynamics, as it did about engineering.
chris_wot 10y ago
I've been looking for this online statement they say was made by Facebook: “We use your microphone to identify the things you’re listening to or watching, based on the music and TV matches we’re able to identify.” I can't find it anywhere on Facebook's site. I don't believe it exists, or if it exists it was expunged some time ago. I'd like to know from which website ABC News 10 has located this information!
- LukeB_UK 10y ago
  Took me less than a minute: https://www.facebook.com/help/iphone-app/710615012295337 https://www.facebook.com/help/iphone-app/710615012295337
  - chris_wot 10y ago
    That page doesn't say that exact quote.
    - ceejayoz 10y ago
      Believe it or not, support FAQs occasionally get copy tweaks.
      - chris_wot 10y ago
        How does LukeB_uk know that this is the document the article used to source that statement? Does he have an old copy? Genuinely curious as the page he's referred me to seems to document a U.S. only feature you need to specifically turn on when you update your status.
- michael_h 10y ago
  google-fu: https://www.facebook.com/help/iphone-app/369513256545845 https://www.facebook.com/help/iphone-app/369513256545845 "No, we don't record your conversations. If you choose to turn on this feature, we'll only use your microphone to identify the things you're listening to or watching based on the music and TV matches we're able to identify. If this feature is turned on, it's only active when you're writing a status update." So, not as bad as the news article suggests, but still extremely creepy.
  - dpcx 10y ago
    No more creepy than Shazam or SoundHound. You'd be amazed at the number of people that want to share the song they're listening to, or the show they're watching, as part of a status update.
jgalt212 10y ago
> No. I work for Facebook. This doesn't happen. You work for a company with 1000s of employees. How are you exactly in a position to confirm this doesn't happen?
- HappyTypist 10y ago
  Engineers have access to code repositories.
  - jgalt212 10y ago
    all repositories?
    - mcherm 10y ago
      It doesn't require ALL repositories, just those that contribute to the mobile app. I don't know about Facebook, but where I work there are hundreds of employees who have access to the source code of our mobile app and a few tens of employees who know the deployment process well enough that they would know if other code were being added as part of the deploy process.
    - Spivak 10y ago
      Facebook apparently uses a single monolithic mercurial repository for everything so it would really be the repository.
  - james3232 10y ago
    Surely there's no way anyone would employ anybody who replies like that.
    - marrs 10y ago
      clearly you've not hired many developers
  - haukilup 10y ago
    Oh cool! So based on your comments, you've done an audit of all related code repositories and libraries to confirm? I'm sure a Facebook engineer COULD find out if Facebook is doing this - but just working at Facebook is not sufficient enough to say for certain it does not happen, you need to actually do the required investigation. --- I don't personally think Facebook is listening in the way suggested here, key word would be _think_ though. And unless you're saying you've audited the code repositories, you're limited to your _opinion_ based on the context you have from working within the company. You cannot say it doesn't happen with any level of certainty (as you've tried) just because you have access to the code repositories.
akerro 10y ago
Heh that's a funny thing to say. I remember when one of the first Snowdens revelations came up, Larry Page wrote a blog post on official Google blog: https://googleblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/what.html https://googleblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/what.html saying they don't cooparate with NSA. The same week we were provided documents signed by NSA/CIA officials claiming that Google is not even forced to do it, they provided extra interface for NSA so they can grab data whenever they want: http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-06/12/google-prism-ftp http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-06/12/google-prism-... Some recent emails with Clinton showed that top Google employers helped with surveillance in Arab countries a couple of years ago, more journalists described that Google is in relationship with NSA. http://www.techtimes.com/articles/6610/20140507/google-cahoots-nsa-email-leak-reveals-close-relationship.htm http://www.techtimes.com/articles/6610/20140507/google-cahoo... Facebook was accused of working FOR NSA to spy on Belgium: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/sep/21/facebook-spying-belgian-citizens-nsa-data-regulator-lawsuit https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/sep/21/facebook-... One of Facebook financial founders was PayPal CEO who... supports global surveillance by NSA http://www.globalresearch.ca/nsa-and-facebook-work-together/5439110 http://www.globalresearch.ca/nsa-and-facebook-work-together/... Question: why should I trust what you say?
- dTal 10y ago
  Hmm, but Larry Page is specifically addressing PRISM. And your Wired link agrees with him. And from what I remember, it wasn't so much "documents signed by NSA/CIA officials" as "an internal powerpoint slide". Didn't the NSA hack Google's own internal fiber? Why would they need to do that if they had the keys to the kingdom anyway?
  - kyrra 10y ago
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/google-encrypts-data-amid-backlash-against-nsa-spying/2013/09/06/9acc3c20-1722-11e3-a2ec-b47e45e6f8ef_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/google-en... Yes, google started encrypting the intra-datacenter traffic once it learned what the NSA was doing.
- sbw1 10y ago
joshgoldberg 10y ago
Kill yourself
zymhan 10y ago
As if one person in a company of thousands can say definitively that a software feature doesn't exist.

I doubt that it happens myself, but out of curiosity, are you saying this because you are in a privileged position to know for sure that Facebook doesn't do this, or are you saying this based on your experience of the corporate culture?

alfiedotwtf 10y ago
> are you saying this because you are in a privileged position to know for sure that Facebook doesn't do this I'd like to add "and will not do it in the future"
renaudg 10y ago
I also used to be an engineer at Facebook. Definitely the corporate culture wouldn't allow anything like this. Believe it or not, many FB engineers have some kind of free software / civil liberties background in their past, and most people don't seem to realize that A) they have options, they can and would walk out if they witnessed anything shady B) the company has enough fake scandals wound up by the press as it is, to risk doing something genuinely evil for short term gain, and have a former employee eventually blow the whistle on. One controversy after the other, during my time at Facebook I witnessed the chasm between the mostly innocent motivations behind a product feature, and what the press / outside world made of it. This experience probably taught me as much about media cycles and conspiracy theory dynamics, as it did about engineering.

chris_wot 10y ago

I've been looking for this online statement they say was made by Facebook: “We use your microphone to identify the things you’re listening to or watching, based on the music and TV matches we’re able to identify.” I can't find it anywhere on Facebook's site. I don't believe it exists, or if it exists it was expunged some time ago. I'd like to know from which website ABC News 10 has located this information!

LukeB_UK 10y ago
Took me less than a minute: https://www.facebook.com/help/iphone-app/710615012295337 https://www.facebook.com/help/iphone-app/710615012295337
- chris_wot 10y ago
  That page doesn't say that exact quote.
  - ceejayoz 10y ago
    Believe it or not, support FAQs occasionally get copy tweaks.
    - chris_wot 10y ago
      How does LukeB_uk know that this is the document the article used to source that statement? Does he have an old copy? Genuinely curious as the page he's referred me to seems to document a U.S. only feature you need to specifically turn on when you update your status.
michael_h 10y ago
google-fu: https://www.facebook.com/help/iphone-app/369513256545845 https://www.facebook.com/help/iphone-app/369513256545845 "No, we don't record your conversations. If you choose to turn on this feature, we'll only use your microphone to identify the things you're listening to or watching based on the music and TV matches we're able to identify. If this feature is turned on, it's only active when you're writing a status update." So, not as bad as the news article suggests, but still extremely creepy.
- dpcx 10y ago
  No more creepy than Shazam or SoundHound. You'd be amazed at the number of people that want to share the song they're listening to, or the show they're watching, as part of a status update.

jgalt212 10y ago

> No. I work for Facebook. This doesn't happen. You work for a company with 1000s of employees. How are you exactly in a position to confirm this doesn't happen?

HappyTypist 10y ago
Engineers have access to code repositories.
- jgalt212 10y ago
  all repositories?
  - mcherm 10y ago
    It doesn't require ALL repositories, just those that contribute to the mobile app. I don't know about Facebook, but where I work there are hundreds of employees who have access to the source code of our mobile app and a few tens of employees who know the deployment process well enough that they would know if other code were being added as part of the deploy process.
  - Spivak 10y ago
    Facebook apparently uses a single monolithic mercurial repository for everything so it would really be the repository.
- james3232 10y ago
  Surely there's no way anyone would employ anybody who replies like that.
  - marrs 10y ago
    clearly you've not hired many developers
- haukilup 10y ago
  Oh cool! So based on your comments, you've done an audit of all related code repositories and libraries to confirm? I'm sure a Facebook engineer COULD find out if Facebook is doing this - but just working at Facebook is not sufficient enough to say for certain it does not happen, you need to actually do the required investigation. --- I don't personally think Facebook is listening in the way suggested here, key word would be _think_ though. And unless you're saying you've audited the code repositories, you're limited to your _opinion_ based on the context you have from working within the company. You cannot say it doesn't happen with any level of certainty (as you've tried) just because you have access to the code repositories.

akerro 10y ago

Heh that's a funny thing to say. I remember when one of the first Snowdens revelations came up, Larry Page wrote a blog post on official Google blog: https://googleblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/what.html https://googleblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/what.html saying they don't cooparate with NSA. The same week we were provided documents signed by NSA/CIA officials claiming that Google is not even forced to do it, they provided extra interface for NSA so they can grab data whenever they want: http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-06/12/google-prism-ftp http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-06/12/google-prism-... Some recent emails with Clinton showed that top Google employers helped with surveillance in Arab countries a couple of years ago, more journalists described that Google is in relationship with NSA. http://www.techtimes.com/articles/6610/20140507/google-cahoots-nsa-email-leak-reveals-close-relationship.htm http://www.techtimes.com/articles/6610/20140507/google-cahoo... Facebook was accused of working FOR NSA to spy on Belgium: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/sep/21/facebook-spying-belgian-citizens-nsa-data-regulator-lawsuit https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/sep/21/facebook-... One of Facebook financial founders was PayPal CEO who... supports global surveillance by NSA http://www.globalresearch.ca/nsa-and-facebook-work-together/5439110 http://www.globalresearch.ca/nsa-and-facebook-work-together/... Question: why should I trust what you say?

dTal 10y ago
Hmm, but Larry Page is specifically addressing PRISM. And your Wired link agrees with him. And from what I remember, it wasn't so much "documents signed by NSA/CIA officials" as "an internal powerpoint slide". Didn't the NSA hack Google's own internal fiber? Why would they need to do that if they had the keys to the kingdom anyway?
- kyrra 10y ago
  https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/google-encrypts-data-amid-backlash-against-nsa-spying/2013/09/06/9acc3c20-1722-11e3-a2ec-b47e45e6f8ef_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/google-en... Yes, google started encrypting the intra-datacenter traffic once it learned what the NSA was doing.
sbw1 10y ago

joshgoldberg 10y ago

Kill yourself

zymhan 10y ago

As if one person in a company of thousands can say definitively that a software feature doesn't exist.