Facebook has patented a system that can activate your phone's microphone, using
inaudible signals broadcast via a television, to monitor your television viewing habits.
According to its creator, the patent is a way for broadcasters to know exactly who is
watching their TV shows or ads and the viewing duration.
The patent application describes it as a system where an audio fingerprint embedded in
TV shows or ads would trigger the phone to switch on its microphone.
A report says that the same system can be used for better targeting of advertisements
by building a viewing profile of every individual in the house.
Once triggered, the microphone will start recording “ambient audio of the content item”
which can be matched with Facebook's database to determine what an individual
watches, likes and generally prefers. However, the individual is unaware of all this and
is not choosing to activate the system. This way, the company will be able to know
which adult or child within a household was watching a particular broadcast. Privacy
experts have shown major concern about this unannounced entry in people's private
lives - listening to private conversations without their consent.
Senior staff technologist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation William Budington said,
"It’s extremely disconcerting for privacy to have an inaudible beacon as it means they
want to make it not obvious to the user that the device is listening."In response, head of
intellectual property at Facebook Allen Lo said, "It is common practice to file patents to
prevent aggression from other companies. Because of this, patents tend to focus on
future-looking technology that is often speculative in nature and could be
commercialised by other companies. The technology in this patent has not been
included in any of our products, and never will be."
Facebook Patents System to Monitor Your TV Habits With Your Phone's Mic! cablevision | |
| 5 Likes | 5 Dislikes |
| 71 views views | 1.57K followers |
| People & Blogs | Upload TimePublished on 25 Jul 2018 |
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét