
Facebook wants to 'listen' to your music and TV - hugorodgerbrown
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-27517817
======
bdg
I think I read about this in a book once...

"The iPhone received and transmitted simultaneously. Any sound that Winston
made, above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by it,
moreover, so long as he remained within the field of vision which the helpful
sign suggested, he could be seen as well as heard. There was of course no way
of knowing whether you were being checked-in on social media any given moment.
How often, or on what system, the service provider plugged in on any
individual wire was guesswork. It was even conceivable that they included
everybody all the time. But at any rate they could connect you whenever they
wanted to. You had to live -- did live, from habit that became instinct -- in
the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in
darkness, every movement scrutinized."

~~~
happyscrappy
It is fairly ironic that you use iPhone in your example considering that with
side loading and permission over reach any talented hacker can access an
Android phone to the level you describe while you would almost have to be a
nation state to pull it off on a non-jailbroken iPhone.

~~~
untog
_with side loading and permission over reach_

 _a non-jailbroken iPhone_

You don't think it's a little unfair to compare a sideloaded (thus,
compromised) Android phone with a non-compromised, non-jailbroken iPhone?

~~~
happyscrappy
Side-loading and non-jailbroken are the defaults. Google is warning everyone
to only download from the Play Store but few pay attention and everyone wants
something for free.

~~~
leoedin
Every android phone I've owned has required me to check a box hidden in the
settings before I could install from outwith the Play store. My current phone
gives me an additional pop-up warning that this is a security risk which I
have to agree to before it will enable side-loading.

Ultimately you can't completely protect users from their own stupidity. You
have to make the security vs usability tradeoff somewhere. I appreciate that
my phone allows me to manually install applications - it is in fact one of the
reasons I chose it.

------
Karunamon
Oh, you mean scrobbling? That thing last.fm has done forever? And it only
activates when you go into the status update UI?

Sad that there's not a single, not even _one_ positive mention of this feature
here. I'm starting to think this whole privacy thing has turned a lot of you
into luddites. I'm serious. The highest rated fucking comment is a post that
takes a line from 1984 and replaces "telescreen" with "iphone". Yes, very
clever and completely relevant.

I remember a time when this would have generated discussion on how cool it is
or what technology they're using to accomplish it, but instead, it's PRIVACY
PRIVACY PRIVACY (even when it's an irrelevant concern, such as this) - the
same reaction I'd expect had this been posted to 4chan /g/.

~~~
CaptainZapp
Oh, and this has nothing to do with Facebook's atrocious behavior in all
things privacy?

~~~
Karunamon
Unless your fear is that Facebook wants to record your conversations on the
sly, then yes, that is a completely insane thing to be worried about, and I'd
ask for proof.

Facebook doing what Shazam does doesn't somehow make it more skeevy.

~~~
Nursie
Or, you know, just track everything you do by listening, building up ever more
details on you.

>> Facebook doing what Shazam does doesn't somehow make it more skeevy.

Of course it does.

~~~
timdorr
I'm sure Shazam and SoundHound just throw away all that useful metadata too...

~~~
CaptainZapp
I'm sure they don't.

On the other hand they are not in a position to combine it with a truckload of
your (partially at least) most intimate data, sucked up with all their other
data gathering ventures.

For what it's worth: I'm putting my money where my mouth is and "deleted" my
Facebook account years ago.

------
pmx
It amazes me that people are so willing to give these "services" so much
access to their lives. It creeped me out when facebook used to ask me what I
thought about a place I had been to. This is a whole new level of creepy, why
don't people care?

~~~
spindritf
It's not really a new level. People have been doing it with Last.fm since
before Facebook existed.

~~~
dTal
Last.fm isn't so bad though because they do not also have a massive collection
of photos of you, your social graph, your location, your phone number, etc...

------
sp332
"Can be turned off at any time" means "will never be turned off by 99.99% of
our users".

~~~
andrey-p
"...it starts currently as opt-in". Not a massive fan of that "currently".

I don't own a smartphone and deleted my FB account years ago, but this still
makes me squirm.

------
uptown
Situational awareness and semi-passive alternative inputs is being added to
more and more devices. The always waiting your command "Ok Google" thing that
Android phones and "Ok Glass" that Google Glass do comes to mind. Same for the
XBOX One, only in that case it's also got a camera aimed at your livingroom.
The Nest knows when there are people present. And now Facebook can listen to
your surroundings while you post a status update. Any others I'm not thinking
of?

Edit: Chrome now lets you use "Ok Google" as well.

[http://www.theverge.com/2014/5/22/5740946/chrome-ok-
google-v...](http://www.theverge.com/2014/5/22/5740946/chrome-ok-google-voice-
search)

~~~
alaoiigha
I wish "Ok Google" was always waiting - Instead you have to initiate it.

It's pretty awesome when you've dirty hands and can't touch the phone, but you
need to turn it on, and unlock it first.

~~~
ForHackernews
I have a Moto X, it does have touchless always-on voice control:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOr8Wxcc0Gs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOr8Wxcc0Gs)
(I don't have it enabled, though)

------
coldcode
Facebook wants to listen to your brainwaves but are thwarted by reality. So
far.

------
pkorzeniewski
Beside the privacy concerns, it's sad that most people feel the need to share
every little detail of their life with everyone, 24/7\. What's the point?

~~~
spindritf
Branding (signalling). Same reason people post pictures of their desserts with
the restaurant's name, announce party affiliation, and tell you about a band
you have never heard.

------
tempodox
I'm sure we could just ask the NSA to identify all that fluff for us. And
while they're at it, they could do our backups, too.

------
dredmorbius
I'm about ready to ditch my phone and swap it for a Morse key.

------
codva
So what happens when the MPAA buys access to the data and cross references
everybody that is watching Game of Thrones with the HBO subscriber list?

------
k-mcgrady
Seems like this thread is full of people typing while wearing tinfoil hats.

They have added a feature which works the same way Shazam et al do. You want
to share what you're listening to? Press a button, the mic gets activated, and
Facebook ID's the song for you to save you typing it out and searching
yourself.

They are not listening to you all the time, even when you're in the Facebook
app.

~~~
illuminate
Shazam doesn't try to run itself passively and report back to HQ when I don't
need it to run.

Shazam also isn't the same level of data mining/profiling.

------
islon
This app requires the following permissions: read you thoughts.

------
GlennS
Remember those scripts that changed your instant messenger status when you
started listening to a song? Or posted in IRC about it?

Automated narcissism doesn't exactly make for good conversation. People will
get bored of it after a day or two.

------
UnethicalHacks
this will be a fantastic data collection tool to allow advertisers to target
user's tastes that they don't "like" on fb.

