FB is listening on your phone

Me | 10-25-2021 | Zathras

[Zathras]

I very seldom post anything but this is important. I have been working in high tech for over 40 years and have branched out into network security as a hobby. This weekend me and my support team discovered by accident FB can monitor your non-phone conversations by accessing your smartphone microphone. We are also positive that they are sharing this information within the FB organization and highly likely selling the info to other parties.

This affects FB, Instigram, WhatsApp and FB Marketplace so far that we know.

The fix is you MUST disable microphone access on ALL of these apps or remove from your phone.

It is possible that this is how the DNC was able to monitor Trump's conversations however I have no evidence of this.

[ConservativeMind]

Or just not allow background processing, shutting off the microphone when the app is not in the foreground.

[SuperLuminal]

These days, nothing is outside the realm of possibilities...

[cgbg]

If you want privacy get a dog.

I don’t trust cell phones as far as I can throw them.

[G Larry]

Not if you have never downloaded the app.

I've been warning for years that FB allows takeover of your devices, in the background, invisible to you.

[Skywise]

Or never installing Facebook to begin with!

Now what I want to know is: I’ve disabled “Hey Siri” on my phone so it can only be activated if I push a button. But you have to wonder… is my phone still actively listening?!

[cuban leaf]

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

In my case it is my daughter in law discussing a unique” topic during lunch and when she went into an app on her smart phone she started seeing ads related to that topic, though she had never used the internet or her phone at all regarding the subject.

[rktman]

So, do I need a facebork account now? You know, so I don’t feel left out. 😏🙌

[Karma_Sherab]

If they are listening in on my family, they must be immensely bored

[Karma_Sherab]

But you have to wonder… is my phone still actively listening?!

In this world today? yes, it's always listening, always tracking even when turned off

[edwinland]

Thanks. I was sure that I had turned off microphone access to these apps, but realized that Facebook messenger also allows phone calls, so I must have allowed it to access the mic a long time ago and forgotten to turn it off again.

AND I thought I had turned off background app refresh but it was on for nearly all apps.

[Zathras]

More info.
I had a retired Cisco IT person visiting for the weekend.
The conversations showed up on his phone and since he was not using my home network, it wasn’t blocked by my firewall.
It happened twice in 30 min and after doing more research, discovered how FB was doing it.

[Magnatron]

I don’t have Facebook, but my wife does. An interesting thing happened one day that convinced me that Facebook is actively spying on our conversations.

We were driving near a mall in Charlotte. We don’t live in Charlotte. In fact, we live two hours from there. While we were looking for a place to eat, we drove past a Crate and Barrel. We have never shopped at Crate and Barrel, nor do we have a store anywhere close to us. As we were driving past the store in a plaza loaded with other retail establishments, my wife commented: “We should stop at Crate and Barrel and see what kind of stuff they have”.

That was it. No further conversation outside of me saying to her that we didn’t have time and we needed to find a place to eat. We drove past, found a restaurant, and forgot completely about the conversation.

Several hours later when we arrived home, my wife opened her Facebook page, and there, right at the top of the page was a giant ad for Crate and Barrel.

There is no other logical explanation for this event other than the phone and app were actively listening to our conversation. At the time this happened, her phone was in her purse on the floor and the screen was off. Crate and Barrel was not the only retail establishment in the area. We were near a mall and there were tons of other stores in the vicinity.

This is highly creepy and needs to be investigated by our law enforcement entities — once they finish with their engagement in planning terrorist activities and rounding up parents from school board meetings.

[gundog]

Ping

[Zathras]

Thanks for reminding me.
FB Messenger is ALSO impacted.

[JonPreston]

Thank you.

[CatOwner]

To this day, one of the things I was most grateful for with my employer was the recommendation not to sign up for and be active on a social network. Given the classified nature of the work, it was considered good security practice to avoid those sites.

I suspect many who joined the classified workforce the past decade or so think nothing about being on social media and posting about it. Ugh.

[Howie66]

I don’t use any of those apps and haven’t ever.

[Responsibility2nd]

FB is listening on your phone.

Big deal. When you look at a list of just exactly who is spying on you on a daily basis - you learn to accept our “New World Order”.

Facebook, Amazon, Alexa, Google, your IP provider, your cell phone carrier, Siri, OK Google, Apple, any and all apps on your cell phone, your car, the doorbell app, and of course our good friends at the FBI and the NSA.

To name just a few off the top of my head.

[wally_bert]

They would find I watch a lot of MST3K and Rifftrax plus old movies and TV.

I have the color Dragnet movie on Roku now.