Greg's Corner

Facebook files spying patent

It appears that it’s going to be another Facebook-heavy week again as the social media giant is once again back in the news for more potential Orwellian shenanigans. When Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified before Congress, he specifically stated that Facebook is not listening to our conversations through our phones. While that may or may not be true, one of Facebook’s more recent patent filings shows it may not need to listen to our conversations to influence our lives.

According to several reports, one of Facebook’s new patents is for a technology that would allow a Facebook-enabled device to listen for inaudible tones coming from your TV in order to tell what ads you’re watching and whether or not you’re muting the ads or leaving the room when the ad is on. Once these tones are heard, your device would be capable of recording all ambient noise around it including any conversations going on near the device.

This is only one of several patents filed by Facebook that the New York Times has referred to as ‘creepy’. Each of these patents seems more invasive than the next yet Facebook says that these are merely ideas and should not be taken as evidence for its future product plans. Somehow, I don’t think Facebook is filing these patents just for the fun of it.