Facebook Wants To Spy On People Using Their Phone's Camera and Analyze Facial Emotions (thesun.co.uk) 104
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Sun: The social network applied for a patent to capture pictures of a user through their smartphone. The creepy designs, which date back to 2015, were discovered by software company CBI Insight, which has been analyzing Mark Zuckerberg's "emotion technology." Patent documents contain illustrations showing a person holding a smartphone with a camera taking a picture from which "emotion characteristics" like smiling or frowning are detected. If the person appears to like what they're seeing, Facebook could place more of the same type of content in front of them. Patents don't always make it through to the end product, so it's not clear whether Facebook will bring out this new feature. Researchers at CBI Insights warned that the plans could put a lot of people off using the service. Facebook appears to have tested out similar technology to work out which emoji to send to people using a selfie.
This is why... (Score:5, Funny)
This is why I always point my phone camera at my junk when reading Facebook.
I don't want anonymous people on facebook seeing my face.
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More like cocktail weenie, amirite?
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This is why I always point my phone camera at my junk when reading Facebook.
I don't want anonymous people on facebook seeing my face.
Facebook tracking algorithm: He's bald and always winking, show him more ads for Rogaine and eye drops!
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He's bald and always winking, show him more ads for Rogaine and eye drops!
Meanwhile, more Captain Picard memes in the daily feed.
This is why you *DO NOT* run Facebook apps. (Score:2)
Here is a handy Facebook client for Android that provides access to Messenger:
F-Droid Face Slim [f-droid.org]
The above client is a 3rd-party open source wrapper. It will not update itself automatically without asking. It will not suddenly drain your battery dry. It will not access any sensors on your device without your approval. It will not gather your contacts and upload them for recruiting and advertising.
Facebook does all of these things and more. Burn it off your phone with a blowtorch.
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Re:This is why... (Score:5, Funny)
At least you know why everything thinks you are a dick.
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Plot twist - good-guy facebook detects your testicular cancer and notifies you thus saving your balls and your life.
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Is that the limitation of this technology? (Score:5, Funny)
Would it be able to read hand gestures too? Because I know which one they'll get from my camera...
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Victory?
Wait, only half way.
researchers are confused. (Score:5, Interesting)
Researchers at CBI Insights warned that the plans could put a lot of people off using the service.
Bullshit. Facebook is already an unbelievably creepy source of intrusive personal surveillance, and people flock to it by the billions. They meet someone in real life they never told FB about, and suddenly see that person suggested as a FB friend, because FB detected their phones with he FB app installed came into close proximity.
Most people simply do not care. There is no level of creepiness that could ever put them off. This would be marketed as a good thing, and people would eat it up like they do every other form of spying.
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It is creepy. You don't have to be paranoid. Think of FB as a creep and stalker that follows you around.
What you say next is like: If you don't want 1984 Big Brother's telescreens following you around, there ways to be sneaky. Put a hair on top of a book in a drawer so you'll know later if someone has been looking through your things and had moved that book, and now knows you are reading forbidden ideas censored by the ze Trumpenland. Just because you don't like it, comrad, doesn't
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It is creepy.
No it isn't. This would be an opt-in service. It is no different in principle from using any other face-chat service. There is no way in heck that FB is going to just film people without consent. They would be hit by an avalanche of lawsuits and bad publicity.
Also, filing a patent does not mean they "want" to do this. Companies file tons of patents for random crap all the time, mostly for defensive purposes. The last company I worked for offered a $1000 bonus for any "patentable idea" regardless of wh
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Facebook is creepy, they don't ask for permission to follow you around
Hundreds of companies track you with cookies, etc. NONE of them ask for permission. That is not a Facebook issue, and has nothing to do with turning on your camera without your permission.
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Maybe that should be a lesson for sexual predators. If there are enough of them, then it is the new normal, and everything is okay.
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No it isn't. This would be an opt-in service.
Why do you think so? None of the other tracking is opt-in - unless you count "using facebook at all" as an opt-in to being tracked.
And even if it is opt-in - they will surely arrange things so your service is noticeably degraded if you don't opt-in. Anything new and cool, you have to opt-in . The new version of the app will need the camera, or you're stuck with some old increasingly obsolete version that you don't even get on a new phone.
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Yes, I can see it.
By agreeing to the TOS, you are opting in. About 2/3 of the way through the TOS, on page 223, in fine print, you authorize FaceTwit to harvest your and your family's vital organs in the middle of the night, unless your mobile phone company or internet service provider has already gotten them first.
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Think of FB as a creep and stalker that follows you around.
Wouldn't it be more appropriate to think of FB as a creep and stalker that you've asked to follow you around? Or are there people who use Facebook but don't know they use it?
If you don't want Facebook to use your camera you could, you know, turn off Facebook's permission to use your camera. Or if you think that's not enough, you can stick some tape over the selfie lens.
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people typically join facebook to share pictures of thier kids with thier familes or keep in touch with people. The whole following them around thing is not WHY people sign up for facebook. I have never met someone that says "boy I wish there was a company that would watch my every move... I know! I'll join facebook!"
facebook has been known to default new security settings to the least secure without notice. Its not like everything is straight forward and agreed to.
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It is creepy. You don't have to be paranoid. Think of FB as a creep and stalker that follows you around.
I seem to have missed the news item about the new government mandatory requirement to have your FB-connected smartphone with you at all times.
cites found via googling 'shadow account' (Score:2, Informative)
http://www.zdnet.com/article/firm-facebooks-shadow-profiles-are-frightening-dossiers-on-everyone/
https://www.groovypost.com/news/facebook-shadow-accounts-non-users/
lots more if you do it yourself
Re:researchers are confused. (Score:5, Insightful)
Think of FB as a personal assistant that follows you around.
A personal assistant that follows me around, is someone I pay, who works for me. If they systematically did something I didn't like with my information; like sell me out to a beverage company and keep suggesting i try Budweiser light lime mohito... then I'd fire them, and hire a personal assistant who had the sense not to pull that kind of shit.
So, no it is nothing like a personal assistant. Its a lot more like a creepy stalker, who i am not paying, who is taking notes about what am doing even after i told them to fuck off, and who sold out to Budweiser to put lime mojito banners every where i turn since they saw me drink a beer once.
I'd welcome a digital personal assisant that worked for me... that actively sheilded me from ads, that told budweiser to get bent, that didn't try to increase my spending on shit i didn't need and dress it up as as 'service'... etc.
FB / Amazon / etc is NOT THAT THING.
Stallman on Facebook (Score:2)
His advice? In no uncertain terms, delete your account immediately [stallman.org].
This is far from a unique [entrepreneur.com] opinion [medium.com].
no one NEEDS facebook (Score:3, Insightful)
This is just another step towards proving that. maybe the masses will never learn, maybe its too late, but at least i have started getting my friends and family to drop the app off of their phones. They are already spending more time outside and enjoying more of the world around them.
It also removes the performance anxiety that facebook creates.
Free your self from your voluntary slavery, facebook adds no net benefit to your life, only stress, anxiety and fake friends.
Re:no one NEEDS facebook (Score:5, Insightful)
feedback (Score:1)
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And suddenly... (Score:2)
...we know why their webapp works so crappily on mobile browsers. Get the idiots to use the apps, which basically want root access.
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The problem with Japanese words is that you can't tell by their sound what you'll get. Any word may return results for some delicious sushi variant or some weird ass porn fetish you didn't even fathom possible.
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The problem with Japanese words is that you can't tell by their sound what you'll get. Any word may return results for some delicious sushi variant or some weird ass porn fetish you didn't even fathom possible.
Frequently it will be both.
Fuck Facebook (Score:1)
Hopefully enough said. I also hope to live to see the day when Zuckerberg is tried and convicted for stealing from all of us. They are shit.
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I'm just pointing out the irony. Nothing more. Move along.
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the NWO
Oh dear.
They are going to lock me up... (Score:3)
If my phone can monitor my facial expressions while at work some AI is going to call the white coats on me or think I am about to go postal ;)
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But you can rest assured that FB would never take a side, one way or the other, on whether you should go postal or not. Nope. Nosiree.
Just because a company patents something... (Score:1)
If they have a patentable invention, they'll patent it. Patents have value. Other companies might want to licence it, or it might be something that can offer as part of a negotiation or settlement with another company.
Maybe they will. Maybe they won't. Depends on whether they think this will make money.
And because it's facebook... (Score:2)
Too Late (Score:2)
Given their track record, if facebook says they want to do this, chances are they're already doing it somewhere as a test.
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Given their track record, if facebook says they want to do this, chances are they're already doing it somewhere as a test.
I guarantee they're doing it in a "testing" mode to some of their users. That's a given.
Good news for those who like privacy (Score:2)
Facebook applied for a patent.
If the patent is granted, only Facebook will be able to spy on you like this. Or at least, it will require other parties do deal with Facebook first before they can implement this technology for themselves.
And if you are privacy conscious, you probably don't use Facebook, so that's a win.
Mobile browser issues & Messenger (Score:2)
I refuse to install the Facebook and Messenger app, in part for crap like this. So previously if I had to respond to a FB message on the go, I would open up Chrome and go to Messenger.com, no problem. Now, when I do, and type, something weird happens - only one word appears. When I type a second word, the first disappears, and just that word is there. I can't type out a sentence. I tried it with Firefox, and can't even log into Messenger.com - it just hangs on the main page saying "Sign in with Facebook to
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"I refuse to install the Facebook and Messenger app"
Full stop. I won't dabble in Facebook, period. I don't have an account and never will.
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Sadly for some friends and work I have to remain a part of it, but it's as little as possible.
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"I refuse to install the Facebook and Messenger app"
Full stop. I won't dabble in Facebook, period. I don't have an account and never will.
Such courage.
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Such courage.
Thank you for recognizing my stalwart attitude and incredible force of will.
They will give blood samples to FaceBook (Score:2)
If Facebook interfaces with a continuous blood flow monitor, people would proudly broadcast their harmone levels to the whole world.
I'm sorry, you can't do that, facebook. (Score:2)
If you keep stopping computers from watching your emotions in the background, you're never gonna have cool science fiction wonders like the Ash, David, and HAL 9000 lines.
Keep the camera covered up (Score:3)
...just like you do on your home PC. It's your life. Control your own privacy as best you can, if you still choose to use a smart phone.
When you want to do selfies, fine, it's your choice, and then uncover the camera, otherwise, keep the camera covered.
For the really hard-core, do not even own a smart phone. Use the free-with-your-plan models that just voice and text and camera, and have a removable battery. Keep the phone in a case that covers the camera lens, blacking it out, and making any attempts to covertly take pictures when you do not want it to, not possible. Remove the battery when not in use.
Re:Keep the camera covered up (Score:4, Insightful)
Keep the camera covered up just like you do on your home PC.
Or, just don't have a Facebook account. Problem solved.
But if you want to have to constantly take countermeasures against an entity that TELLS YOU it's going to spy on you, be my guest.
Having Facebook on your phone is like inviting a crack-addicted thief to live in your home and then rationalizing to yourself the need to hire a security guard to watch him 24 hours a day.
As if (Score:2)
As if I needed another reason not to have a Facebook account...
Bring on the activity lights (Score:2)
Smartphones need an activity light (i.e., the little light that shows the camera is active/recording) like fucking yesterday. Every time I'm doing something on my phone I have no idea if the fucker is watching me back.
Which is why Facebook doesn't get used on my phone (Score:3)
See above. The only application that I allow to access my phone's camera (knowingly, anyway) is the camera application.
Does Facebook even realize that many companies don't allow camera on the premises? Heck, I can recall it was nearly ten years ago sitting in company meetings where sensitive business plans were to be discussed and everyone was asked to turn off their phones and put them away. And it wasn't because of the potential for an annoying ringtone interrupting the meeting. Corporate espionage aside, the invasion of privacy that something like this potentially opens up is mind boggling. It sure seems to me that they're not thoroughly thinking through these ideas before making them public.
You can't read emotion on a face (Score:2)
All these approaches to "read" emotion from people's faces are going to fail because faces don't broadcast emotion [nytimes.com]. Recent research shows that emotions are constructed [lisafeldmanbarrett.com] differently from person to person, from situation to situation.
Previous Art? (Score:2)
I've noticed length of active window time on... (Score:2)