New Facebook feature can access your phone’s mic
by Dr. Samori Swygert
We’re in an era where cash is king, and information converts to currency and/or control. Every aspect of our life has become inundated with some digital platform. Facebook has developed a new app that allows them to turn on your cellphone’s microphone and record all your background audio.
The app is currently optional, so this feature is not imposed on the Facebook user, you have to opt-in. Facebook has issued public relations claims that they’re not recording and storing the audio data that is used for this new smartphone app. The app currently operates on the IOS and Android smartphone platforms.
Based on an article in Forbes Magazine, the app works by activating your smartphone microphone whenever you post a Facebook update. The sound is encoded, and then matched against a databank of audio files in real-time. This function allows users to see what their friends may be listening to or watching.
According to the article, Facebook believes this also facilitates a tailored and enhanced experience of the user’s music, TV show, and movie preferences. So, if I’m watching “Breaking Bad,” and post a Facebook update (while opted-in on the app), the sound gets recorded, coded, and matched with millions of audio files that Facebook can possibly make recommendations and update my friends about. This is similar to shopping for a book on Amazon. You purchase the book you’ve been searching for, but Amazon will also furnish their recommendations of similar materials. The only difference is Facebook’s feature is done sonically, and is a little more invasive or intrusive. However, you must opt-in.
This sounds like a hit for Facebook, and a home run for “Big Data.” My concerns reside in the fact that this is only the beginning. Companies always revise and update their policies and end-user agreements. It’s pertinent to remember that many companies and digital services share their database with the government. Just over a week ago, the YourBlackWorld team published an article I wrote about a contract that Twitter signed with the Library of Congress. The agreement allows the Library of Congress to archive all Tweets that are posted.
I can easily see the capabilities of this app being exploited by the government in the name of “national security and antiterrorism.” Let’s think about this for a second: Your smartphone has GPS tracking so your physical coordinates can be mapped to your specific location. If there is an app that can turn on your microphone, then surely there’s an app currently unbeknownst to you that can turn on your phone’s camera. This sets the stage for 24/7/365 surveillance.
What’s in a public relations statement?
How do you measure or test the veracity and truthfulness of a public statement from a company? Unless you have developed the software algorithms, and designed the app features personally, you’re really left to believe what companies promise you. Unless you’re in their IT department, and behind the closed-doors of their headquarters, you have no idea what employees are doing with your data. Hell, the government didn’t even know what Snowden was doing with NSA data until he exposed them.
Really think about this: How do you trust any public statement after several banking scandals, Bernie Madoff, Eric Snowden, the NSA, the IRS email scandal, or even a cheating spouse that vowed before God to not cheat? There will always be a flaw in the system when we involve humans to safeguard sensitive data. The human nature is corruptible in the face and opportunity to ascertain power. We’re familiar with the quote, “absolute power corrupts absolutely.” The “honor system” will always fail.
My last thoughts on big data
Big data is a double edged sword because it possesses tremendous potential to solve problems. The problem with big data is, “us.” This is the same dilemma with almost any physics or scientific development.
Radioactive elements are ever-present in nature; however, we’ve harnessed them to develop nuclear weapons, but we also use it as a source of energy. We’ve advanced the field of science, and in addition to developing cures, we develop bioengineered bacteria and viruses for germ warfare. This is how I see the progression of big data.
Big data allows profiles to be built about you by people you don’t even know. This allows agencies, institutions, jobs, and other bodies to prejudge, grade, rank, categorize, and label you without considering or factoring everything that makes you, you.
For instance, I could be a college student doing a term paper on methods to combat terrorism. To conduct my research, I have to read several articles about terrorism all over the internet to build the references for my paper. However, because I’ve researched various websites and archives, I might be put on a terrorist watch list, but I’m not a terrorist at all, I’m just a poor college student trying to complete my curriculum criteria.
In conclusion, I think this is a win for Facebook, and another step down a slippery slope of the loss of privacy and civil liberties for the American populace.
Source:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2014/05/22/facebook-wants-to-listen-in-on-what-youre-doing/
